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GENERAL 
LIBRARY 


GUARANTEES   OF   PEACE 


Books  by 
WOODROW   WILSON 

GUARANTEES   OF   PEACE 

IN   OUR  FIRST   YEAR  OF   WAR 

WHY    WE    ARE    AT    WAR 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

WHEN  A  MAN  COMES  TO  HIMSELF 

ON  BEING  HUMAN 

THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS,   NEW  YORK 
[Established  1817] 


Guarantees  <?/ Peace 

Messages  and  Addresses  to  the  Congress 

and  the  People,  Jan.  3 1, 1918,  to  Dec,  2, 1918 

Together  with  the  Peace  Notes  to  Qermany 

and  Austria 

BY 

WOODROW  WILSON 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 

with 

An  Appendix  Containing 

the  Corrected  Text  of 

the  Armistice 


Harper  &  Brothers  Publishers 

New  York  and  London 


Guarantees  of  Peace 


Copyright,  1919.  by  Harper  &   Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published  January,  1919 


^ 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

Foreword i 

I.  An  Appeal  to  the  Farmers i 

(January  31,  1918) 

II.  Address  to  the  Congress 9 

{February  11,  1918) 

III.  Co-operation  or  Obstruction?     ....      21 

{Message  to  Striking  Carpenters  in  Eastern 
Shipyards,   February  17,  1918) 

IV.  A  Pledge  of  Help  to  Russia       ....      23 

{March  11,  191 8) 

V.  Force  to  the  Utmost,  for  Right    ...      25 

{April  6,  1 91 8) 

VI.  The  Burden  of  War  Taxation    ....      33 

{Address  to  the  Congress,  May  27,  191 8) 

VII.  Independence  Day  Address 42 

{July  4,  1918) 

VIII.  The  Mob  Spirit  Denounced 49 

{Message  to  the  American  People,  July  26, 
1918) 
IX         The  Second  Conscription  Proclamation      53 
{August  31,  1 91 8) 

X.  The  Answer  to  Austria's  Request  for  a 

Conference 57 

{September  16,  1918) 

XI.  Impartial  Justice  the  Price  of  Peace    .      58 

{September  27,  1918) 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XII.  Address  to  the  Senate  on  Woman  Suf- 

frage    71 

{September  30,  1918) 

XIII.  A  Question  for  the  German  Chancellor      78 

{October  8,  1918) 

XIV.  The  Reply  to  Germany 80 

{October  14,  1918) 

XV.  The  Reply  to  Austria-Hungary      ...      84 

{October  19,  1918) 

XVI.  Autocracy  Must  Go 86 

{October  23,  191 8) 

XVII.  An  Appeal  to  the  Electorate  for  Polit- 

ical Support 91 

{October  25,  1918) 

XVIII.  The  Great  War  Is  Ended 95 

{Address  to  the   Congress,   November  11, 
1918) 

XIX.  A    Proclamation    of    Thanksgiving    for 

Victory iii 

{November  77,  1918) 

XX.  Problems  of  Readjustment 113 

{December  2,  1918) 
Appendix 139 


FOREWORD 

The  present  volume,  containing  the  mes- 
sages and  addresses  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  from  January  31,  1918,  to  De- 
cember 2,  19 1 8,  supplements  the  two  earlier 
collections — Why  We  Are  at  War  and  In  Our 
First  Year  of  War.  The  series,  as  a  whole, 
presents  in  convenient  and  permanent  form 
the  public  utterances  of  the  President  through- 
out the  critical  period  of  our  entrance  into  the 
World  War,  a  record  of  vital  and  enduring 
interest  to  every  patriotic  American.  The 
table  of  contents  also  includes  the  later  diplo- 
matic correspondence  with  Germany  and 
Austria-Hungary,  while  the  corrected  text  of 
the  armistice  agreement  is  printed  as  an 
appendix. 

Among  the  more  important  public  papers 
are  the  address  to  the  Congress,  February  11, 
1918;  the  famous  "Force  to  the  Utmost" 
speech,  delivered  at  Baltimore,  April  6,  19 18, 
in  behalf  of  the  Third  Liberty  Loan;  the  ad- 
dress to  the  Congress,  May  27,  1918,  in  which, 
after  asking  for  financial  support  of  the  war 
program,  the  President  went  on  to  announce 


FOREWORD 

the  beginning  of  the  long  expected  drive  on  the 
west  front,  and  spoke  extemporaneously  con- 
cerning the  spirit  of  the  nation  now  attuned 
to  the  one  thought  of  common  sacrifice;  the 
Independence  Day  oration,  delivered  at  Mount 
Vernon,  in  which  he  elucidated  the  four  es- 
sential ends  for  which  the  United  States  and 
its  Allies  were  contending;  the  Second  Con- 
scription Proclamation,  August  31,  191 8;  the 
address  in  behalf  of  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan, 
delivered  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
New  York,  September  27,  1918,  in  which  he 
clearly  defined  the  issues  that  must  be  settled, 
and  finally  rejected  the  idea  of  any  peace  by 
compromise ;  the  address  to  the  Congress,  No- 
vember II,  191 8,  in  which  the  President  an- 
nounced the  virtual  end  of  the  war  as  co- 
incident with  the  signing  of  the  armistice;  and 
lastly  the  eagerly  awaited  annual  message  to 
Congress,  delivered  orally  December  2,  191 8, 
before  both  Houses  in  joint  session,  on  the 
eve  of  the  President's  departure  for  Europe, 
in  which  Mr.  Wilson  discussed  certain  prob- 
lems of  reconstruction,  and  spoke  in  general 
terms  concerning  the  necessity  of  his  personal 
attendance  upon  the  Peace  Conference. 

Significant  and  inspiring  as  were  these  mes- 
sages and  addresses  in  their  original  form  of 
newspaper  publication,  they  gain  added  dig- 
nity and  importance  when  considered  in  their 
complete  chronological  order.     To  millions  of 


FOREWORD 

the  oppressed  peoples  of  the  Old  World  the  name 
of  Woodrow  Wilson  connotes  the  idea  of  present 
deliverance  and  of  future  justice ;  his  is  the  one 
strong  voice  proclaiming  the  reign  of  law  and 
of  righteousness,  ''the  destruction  of  every 
arbitrary  power  an5rwhere  that  can  separately, 
secretly,  and  of  its  single  choice  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  world,"  and  the  inevitable 
triumph  of  idealism  over  the  dark  forces  of 
materialism  and  national  self-seeking. 

For  the  title,  the  subheadings,  and  the 
general  editing  of  the  subject-matter  the  pub- 
lishers are  responsible.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
earlier  collections  of  the  President's  public 
papers,  the  customary  author's  royalties  are  to 
be  paid  over  to  the  American  Red  Cross. 


GUARANTEES   OF   PEACE 


AN  APPEAL  TO   THE  FARMERS 
{January  31,  191 8) 

Through  the  Farmers'  Conference,  held  at  the 
University  of  Illinois,  at  Urbana,  the  President 
sent  the  following  message  to  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States: 

I  am  very  sorry,  indeed,  that  I  cannot  be 
present  in  person  at  the  Urbana  conference. 
I  should  Hke  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  the  in- 
spiration and  exchange  of  counsel  which  I 
know  I  should  obtain,  but  in  the  circumstances 
it  has  seemed  impossible  for  me  to  be  present, 
and  therefore  I  can  only  send  you  a  very 
earnest  message  expressing  my  interest  and 
the  thoughts  which  such  a  conference  must 
bring  prominently  into  every  mind. 

I  need  not  tell  you,  for  I  am  sure  you  realize 
as  keenly  as  I  do  that  we  are  as  a  nation  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  task,  which  demands 
supreme  sacrifice  and  endeavor  of  every  one 
of  us.     We  can  give  everything  that  is  needed 


2  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

with  the  greater  wilHngness  and  even  satisfac- 
tion because  the  object  of  the  war  in  which  we 
are  engaged  is  the  greatest  that  free  men  have 
ever  undertaken.  It  is  to  prevent  the  Hfe  of 
the  world  from  being  determined  and  the 
fortunes  of  men  everywhere  affected  by  small 
groups  of  military  masters,  who  seek  their  own 
interest  and  the  selfish  dominion  throughout 
the  world  of  the  governments  they  unhappily 
for  the  moment  control. 

NEW  WAR  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

You  will  not  need  to  be  convinced  that  it 
was  necessary  for  us  as  a  free  people  to  take 
part  in  this  war.  It  had  raised  its  evil  hand 
against  us.  The  rulers  of  Germany  had  sought 
to  exercise  their  power  in  such  a  way  as  to  shut 
off  our  economic  Hfe,  so  far  as  our  intercourse 
with  Europe  was  concerned,  and  to  confine 
our  people  within  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
while  they  accomplished  ptirposes  which  would 
have  permanently  impaired  and  impeded  every 
process  of  our  national  life,  and  have  put  the 
fortunes  of  America  at  the  mercy  of  the  Impe- 
rial Government  of  Germany.  This  was  no 
threat.  It  had  become  a  reality.  Their  hand 
of  violence  had  been  laid  upon  our  own  people 
and  our  own  property,  in  flagrant  violation, 
not  only  of  justice,  but  of  the  well-recognized 
and  long-standing  covenants  of  international 
law  and  treaty.     We  are  fighting,  therefore, 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  FARMERS       3 

as  truly  for  the  liberty  and  self-government 
of  the  United  States  as  if  the  war  of  our  own 
Revolution  had  to  be  fought  over  again,  and 
every  man  in  every  business  in  the  United 
States  must  know  by  this  time  that  his  whole 
future  fortune  lies  in  the  balance.  Our 
national  life  and  our  whole  economic  develop- 
ment will  pass  under  the  sinister  influences  of 
foreign  control  if  we  do  not  win.  We  must 
win,  therefore,  and  we  shall  win.  I  need  not 
ask  you  to  pledge  your  lives  and  fortunes,  with 
those  of  the  rest  of  the  nation,  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  that  great  end. 

CULMINATING   CRISIS   AT   HAND 

You  will  realize,  as  I  think  statesmen  on 
both  sides  of  the  water  realize,  that  the 
culminating  crisis  of  the  struggle  has  come,  and 
that  the  achievements  of  this  year  on  the  one 
side  or  the  other  must  determine  the  issue. 
It  has  turned  out  that  the  forces  that  fight 
for  freedom,  the  freedom  of  men  all  over  the 
world  as  well  as  oiu-  own,  depend  upon  us  in 
an  extraordinary  and  unexpected  degree  for 
sustenance,  for  the  supply  of  the  materials  by 
which  men  are  to  live  and  to  fight,  and  it  will 
be  our  glory  when  the  war  is  over  that  we  have 
supplied  those  materials,  and  suppHed  them 
abundantly,  and  it  will  be  all  the  more  glory 
because  in  supplying  them  we  have  made  otir 
supreme  effort  and  sacrifice. 


4  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

In  the  field  of  agricultiire  we  have  agencies 
and  instrumentalities,  fortunately,  such  as  no 
other  Government  in  the  world  can  show. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  is  undoubtedly 
the  greatest  practical  and  scientific  agricultural 
organization  in  the  world.  The  banking  legis- 
lation of  the  last  two  or  three  years  has  given 
the  farmers  access  to  the  great  lendable  capital 
of  the  country,  and  it  has  become  the  duty 
both  of  the  men  in  charge  of  the  Federal 
Reserve  banking  system  and  of  the  farm  loan 
banking  system  to  see  to  it  that  the  farmers 
obtain  the  credit,  both  short  term  and  long 
term,  to  which  they  are  entitled  not  only, 
but  which  it  is  imperatively  necessary  should 
be  extended  to  them  if  the  present  tasks  of 
the  country  are  to  be  adequately  performed. 
Both  by  direct  purchase  of  nitrates  and  by  the 
estabhshment  of  plants  to  produce  nitrates, 
the  Government  is  doing  its  utmost  to  assist 
in  the  problem  of  fertilization.  The  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  and  other  agencies  are 
actively  assisting  the  farmers  to  locate,  safe- 
guard, and  secure  at  cost  an  adequate  supply 
of  sound  seed.  The  Department  has  $2,500,- 
000  available  for  this  purpose  now  and  has 
asked  Congress  for  $6,000,000  more. 

THE    LABOR   PROBLEM 

The  labor  problem  is  one  of  great  difficulty, 
and  some  of  the  best  agencies  of  the  nation 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  FARMERS         5 

are  addressing  themselves  to  the  task  of  solv- 
ing it,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  solve  it.  Farm- 
ers have  not  been  exempted  from  the  draft. 
I  know  that  they  would  not  wish  to  be.  I  take 
it  for  granted  they  would  not  wish  to  be  put 
in  a  class  by  themselves  in  this  respect. 
But  the  attention  of  the  War  Department  has 
been  very  seriously  centered  upon  the  task  of 
interfering  with  the  labor  of  the  farms  as  little 
as  possible,  and  under  the  new  draft  regula- 
tions I  believe  that  the  farmers  of  the  country 
will  find  that  their  supply  of  labor  is  very 
much  less  seriously  drawn  upon  than  it  was 
under  the  first  and  initial  draft,  made  before 
we  had  our  present  full  experience  in  these 
perplexing  matters.  The  supply  of  labor  in 
all  industries  is  a  matter  we  must  look  to  and 
are  looking  to  with  diligent  care. 

SPLENDID   RESPONSE    BY   FARMERS 

And  let  me  say  that  the  stimulation  of  the 
agencies  I  have  enumerated  has  been  responded 
to  by  the  farmers  in  splendid  fashion.  I  dare 
say  that  you  are  aware  that  the  farmers  of 
this  country  are  as  efficient  as  any  other 
farmers  in  the  world.  They  do  not.  produce 
more  per  acre  than  the  farmers  in  Europe.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  they  should  do  so.  It 
would  perhaps  be  bad  economy  for  them  to 
attempt  it.  But  they  do  produce  by  two  to 
three  or  four  times  more  per  man,  per  unit 


6  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

of  labor  and  capital,  than  the  farmers  of  any 
European  country.  They  are  more  alert  and 
use  more  labor-saving  devices  than  any  other 
farmers  in  the  world.  And  their  response  to 
the  demands  of  the  present  emergency  has 
been  in  every  way  remarkable.  Last  spring 
their  planting  exceeded  by  12,000,000  acres 
the  largest  planting  of  any  previous  year,  and 
the  yields  from  the  crops  were  record-breaking 
yields.  In  the  fall  of  191 7  a  wheat  acreage 
of  42,170,000  was  planted,  which  was  one 
million  larger  than  for  any  preceding  year, 
three  millions  greater  than  the  next  largest, 
and  seven  millions  greater  than  the  preceding 
five-year  average. 

But  I  ought  to  say  to  you  that  it  is  not  only 
necessary  that  these  achievements  should  be 
repeated,  but  that  they  should  be  exceeded. 
I  know  what  this  advice  involves.  It  involves 
not  only  labor,  but  sacrifice,  the  painstaking 
application  of  every  bit  of  scientific  knowledge 
and  every  tested  practice  that  is  available. 
It  means  the  utmost  economy,  even  to  the 
point  where  the  pinch  comes.  It  means  the 
kind  of  concentration  and  self-sacrifice  which 
is  involved  in  the  field  of  battle  itself,  where 
the  object  always  looms  greater  than  the  in- 
dividual. And  yet  the  Government  will  help 
and  help  in  every  way  that  it  is  possible.  The 
impression  which  prevails  in  some  quarters 
that  while  the  Government  has  sought  to  fix 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  FARMERS        7 

the  prices  of  foodstxiffs  it  has  not  sought  to 
fix  other  prices  which  determine  the  expenses 
of  the  farmer,  is  a  mistaken  one.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Government  has  actively  and  suc- 
cessfully regtilated  the  prices  of  many  funda- 
mental materials  underlying  all  the  industries 
of  the  country  and  has  regulated  them  not 
only  for  the  purchases  of  the  Government,  but 
also  for  the  purchases  of  the  general  public, 
and  I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Congress  will  extend  the  powers  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  this  important  and  even  essential 
matter,  so  that  the  tendency  to  profiteering 
which  is  showing  itself  in  too  many  quarters 
may  be  effectively  checked.  In  fixing  the 
prices  of  foodstuffs,  the  Government  has  sin- 
cerely tried  to  keep  the  interests  of  the  farmer 
as  much  in  mind  as  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munities which  are  to  be  served,  but  it  is 
serving  mankind,  as  well  as  the  farmer,  and 
everything  in  these  times  of  war  takes  on  the 
rigid  aspect  of  duty. 

America's  greatest  opportunity 

I  will  not  appeal  to  you  to  continue  and 
renew  and  increase  your  efforts.  I  do  not 
believe  that  it  is  necessary  to  do  so.  I  beHeve 
that  you  will  do  it  without  any  word  or  appeal 
from  me,  because  you  understand  as  well  as  I 
do  the  needs  and  opportunities  of  this  great 
hour,  when  the  fortunes  of  mankind  every- 


8  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

where  seem  about  to  be  determined,  and  when 
America  has  the  greatest  opportunity  she  has 
ever  had  to  make  good  her  own  freedom,  and 
in  making  it  good  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to 
men  struggling  for  their  freedom  everywhere. 
You  remember  that  it  was  farmers  from  whom 
came  the  first  shots  at  Lexington,  that  set 
aflame  the  revolution  that  made  America  free. 
I  hope  and  believe  that  the  farmers  of  America 
will  willingly  and  conspicuously  stand  by  to 
win  this  war,  also. 

The  toil,  the  intelligence,  the  energy,  the 
foresight,  the  self-sacrifice,  and  devotion  of  the 
farmers  of  America  will,  I  believe,  bring  to  a 
triumphant  conclusion  this  great  last  war  for 
the  emancipation  of  men  from  the  control  of 
arbitrary  government  and  the  selfishness  of 
class  legislation  and  control,  and  then,  when 
the  end  has  come,  we  may  look  each  other  in 
the  face  and  be  glad  that  we  are  Americans 
and  have  had  the  privilege  to  play  such  a  part. 


II 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS 

{February  ii,  1918) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress, — On  the 
8th  of  January  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing 
you  on  the  objects  of  the  war  as  our  people 
conceive  them.  The  Prime  Minister  of  Great 
Britain  had  spoken  in  similar  terms  on  the  5th 
of  January.  To  these  addresses  the  German 
Chancellor  replied  on  the  24th,  and  Count 
Czemin  for  Austria  on  the  same  day.  It  is 
gratifying  to  have  our  desire  so  promptly 
realized  that  all  exchanges  of  views  on  this 
great  matter  should  be  made  in  the  hearing 
of  all  the  world. 

Count  Czemin 's  reply,  which  is  directed 
chiefly  to  my  own  address,  on  the  8th  of 
January,  is  uttered  in  a  very  friendly  tone. 
He  finds  in  my  statement  a  sufficiently  en- 
couraging approach  to  the  views  of  his  own 
Government  to  justify  him  in  believing  that  it 
furnishes  a  basis  for  a  more  detailed  discussion 
of  purposes  by  the  two  Governments.  He  is 
represented  to  have  intimated  that  the  views 


lo  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

he  was  expressing  had  been  communicated  to 
me  beforehand  and  that  I  was  aware  of  them 
at  the  time  he  was  uttering  them,  but  in  this 
I  am  sure  he  was  misimderstood.  I  had  re- 
ceived no  intimation  of  what  he  intended  to 
say.  There  was,  of  course,  no  reason  why  he 
should  communicate  privately  with  me.  I 
am  quite  content  to  be  one  of  his  public 
audience. 

VON  HERTLING  VAGUE  AND  CONFUSING 

Count  von  Hertling's  reply  is,  I  must  say, 
very  vague  and  very  confusing.  It  is  full  of 
equivocal  phrases  and  leads  it  is  not  clear 
where.  But  it  is  certainly  in  a  very  different 
tone  from  that  of  Count  Czemin,  and  appar- 
ently of  an  opposite  purpose.  It  confirms,  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  rather  than  removes,  the 
unfortunate  impression  made  by  what  we  had 
learned  of  the  conferences  at  Brest-Litovsk. 
His  discussion  and  acceptance  of  our  general 
principles  lead  him  to  no  practical  conclusions. 
He  refuses  to  apply  them  to  the  substantive 
items  which  must  constitute  the  body  of  any 
final  settlement.  He  is  jealous  of  international 
action  and  of  international  counsel.  He  ac- 
cepts, he  says,  the  principle  of  public  diplo- 
macy, but  he  appears  to  insist  that  it  be  con- 
fined, at  any  rate  in  this  case,  to  generalities 
and  that  the  several  particular  questions  of 
territory  and  sovereignty,  the  several  ques- 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS        ii 

tions  upon  whose  settlement  must  depend  the 
acceptance  of  peace  by  the  twenty-three  states 
now  engaged  in  the  war,  m.ust  be  discussed  and 
settled,  not  in  general  council,  but  severally, 
by  the  nations  most  immediately  concerned  by 
interest  or  neighborhood.  He  agrees  that  the 
seas  should  be  free,  but  looks  askance  at  any 
limitation  to  that  freedom  by  international 
action  in  the  interest  of  the  common  order. 
He  would  without  reserve  be  glad  to  see 
economic  barriers  removed  between  nation 
and  nation,  for  that  could  in  no  way  impede  the 
ambitions  of  the  military  party  with  whom  he 
seems  constrained  to  keep  on  terms.  Neither 
does  he  raise  objection  to  a  limitation  of 
armaments.  That  matter  will  be  settled  of 
itself,  he  thinks,  by  the  economic  conditions 
which  must  follow  the  war. 

THE   chancellor's   LIMITED   CONCESSIONS 

But  the  German  colonies,  he  demands,  must 
be  returned  without  debate.  He  will  discuss 
with  no  one  but  the  representatives  of  Russia 
what  disposition  shall  be  made  of  the  peoples 
and  lands  of  the  Baltic  provinces ;  with  no  one 
but  the  Government  of  France  the  ''condi- 
tions" under  which  French  territory  shall  be 
evacuated,  and  only  with  Austria  what  shall 
be  done  with  Poland.  In  the  determination 
of  all  questions  affecting  the  Balkan  states 
he  defers,  as  I  tinderstand  him,  to  Austria  and 


12  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

Turkey;  and  with  regard  to  the  agreements 
to  be  entered  into  concerning  the  non-Turkish 
peoples  of  the  present  Ottoman  Empire  to  the 
Turkish  authorities  themselves.  After  a  set- 
tlement all  around,  effected  in  this  fashion,  by- 
individual  barter  and  concession,  he  would 
have  no  objection,  if  I  correctly  interpret  his 
statement,  to  a  league  of  nations  which  would 
undertake  to  hold  the  new  balance  of  power 
steady  against  external  disturbances. 

PEACE    OF   WORLD   AT   STAKE 

It  must  be  evident  to  every  one  who  under- 
stands what  this  war  has  wrought  in  the 
opinion  and  temper  of  the  world  that  no 
general  peace,  no  peace  worth  the  infinite 
sacrifices  of  these  years  of  tragical  suffering, 
can  possibly  be  arrived  at  in  any  such  fashion. 
The  method  the  German  Chancellor  proposes 
is  the  method  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  We 
cannot  and  will  not  return  to  that.  What  is 
at  stake  now  is  the  peace  of  the  world.  What 
we  are  striving  for  is  a  new  international  order 
based  upon  broad  and  universal  principles  of 
right  and  justice — no  mere  peace  of  shreds  and 
patches.  Is  it  possible  that  Count  von  Hertling 
does  not  see  that,  does  not  grasp  it;  is,  in  fact, 
living  in  his  thought  in  a  world  dead  and  gone  ? 
Has  he  utterly  forgotten  the  Reichstag  resolu- 
tions of  July  19th,  or  does  he  dehberately  ig- 
nore them?    They  spoke  of  the  conditions  of 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS        13 

a  general  peace,  not  of  national  aggrandize- 
ment or  of  arrangements  between  state  and 
state.  The  peace  of  the  world  depends  upon 
the  just  settlement  of  each  of  the  several 
problems  to  which  I  adverted  in  my  recent 
address  to  the  Congress. 

I,  of  course,  do  not  mean  that  the  peace  of 
the  world  depends  upon  the  acceptance  of  any 
particular  set  of  suggestions  as  to  the  way  in 
which  those  problems  are  to  be  dealt  with.  I 
mean  only  that  those  problems,  each  and  all, 
affect  the  whole  world;  that  unless  they  are 
dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of  unselfish  and  unbiased 
justice,  with  a  view  to  the  wishes,  the  natural 
connections,  the  racial  aspirations,  the  security 
and  peace  of  mind  of  the  peoples  involved,  no 
permanent  peace  will  have  been  attained. 
They  cannot  be  discussed  separately  or  in 
comers.  None  of  them  constitutes  a  private 
or  separate  interest  from  which  the  opinion 
of  the  world  may  be  shut  out.  Whatever 
affects  the  peace  affects  mankind,  and  nothing 
settled  by  military  force,  if  settled  wrong,  is 
settled  at  all.  It  will  presently  have  to  be 
reopened. 

THE  CONSENT  OF  THE  GOVERNED 

Is  Count  von  Hertling  not  aware  that  he  is 
speaking  in  the  coiu-t  of  mankind,  that  all 
the  awakened  nations  of  the  world  now  sit  in 
judgment  on  what  every  public  man,  of  what- 


14  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

ever  nation,  may  say  on  the  issues  of  a  conflict 
which  has  spread  to  every  region  of  the  world  ? 
The  Reichstag  resolutions  of  July  themselves 
frankly  accepted  the  decisions  of  that  court. 
There  shall  be  no  annexations,  no  contribu- 
tions, no  punitive  damages.  Peoples  are  not 
to  be  handed  about  from  one  sovereignty  to 
another  by  an  international  conference  or  an 
understanding  between  rivals  and  antagonists. 
National  aspirations  must  be  respected;  peo- 
ples may  now  be  dominated  and  governed 
only  by  their  own  consent.  ''Self-determina- 
tion" is  not  a  mere  phrase.  It  is  an  im- 
perative principle  of  action,  which  statesmen 
will  henceforth  ignore  at  their  peril.  We  can- 
not have  general  peace  for  the  asking,  or  by 
the  mere  arrangements  of  a  peace  conference. 
It  cannot  be  pieced  together,  but  of  individual 
understandings  between  powerful  states. 

All  the  parties  to  this  war  must  join  in  the 
settlement  of  every  issue  anywhere  involved 
in  it,  because  what  we  are  seeking  is  a  peace 
that  we  can  all  unite  to  guarantee  and  main- 
tain, and  every  item  of  it  must  be  submitted 
to  the  common  judgment  whether  it  be  right 
and  fair,  an  act  of  justice,  rather  than  a  bar- 
gain between  sovereigns. 

NO   DESIRE   TO   INTERFERE 

The  United  States  has  no  desire  to  interfere 
tin  European  affairs,  or  to  act  as  arbiter  in 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS         15 

European  territorial  disputes.  She  would  dis- 
dain to  take  advantage  of  any  internal  weak- 
ness or  disorder  to  impose  her  own  will  upon 
another  people.  She  is  quite  read}^  to  be 
shown  that  the  settlements  she  has  suggested 
are  not  the  best  or  the  most  enduring.  They 
are  only  her  own  provisional  sketch  of  prin- 
ciples, and  of  the  way  in  which  they  should  be 
applied.  But  she  entered  this  war  because  she 
was  made  a  partner,  whether  she  would  or  not, 
in  the  sufferings  and  indignities  inflicted  by 
the  military  masters  of  Germany,  against  the 
peace  and  security  of  mankind,  and  the  con- 
ditions of  peace  will  touch  her  as  nearly  as 
they  will  touch  any  other  nation  to  which  is 
intrusted  a  leading  part  in  the  maintenance  of 
civilization.  She  cannot  see  her  way  to  peace 
until  the  causes  of  this  war  are  removed,  its  re- 
newal rendered  as  nearly  as  may  be  impossible. 

war's  roots  in  disregarded  rights 

This  war  had  its  roots  in  the  disregard  of 
the  rights  of  small  nations  and  of  nationalities 
which  lacked  the  union  and  the  force  to  make 
good  their  claim  to  determine  their  own  alle- 
giances and  their  own  forms  of  political  life. 
Covenants  must  now  be  entered  into  which 
will  render  such  things  impossible  for  the 
future;  and  those  covenants  must  be  backed 
by  the  united  force  of  all  the  nations  that  love 
justice  and  are  willing  to  maintain  it  at  any 


i6  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

cost.  If  territorial  settlements  and  the  po- 
litical relations  of  great  populations  which 
have  not  the  organized  power  to  resist  are  to 
be  determined  by  the  contracts  of  the  powerful 
Governments  which  consider  themselves  m.ost 
directly  affected,  as  Count  von  Hertling  pro- 
poses, why  may  not  economic  questions  also? 
It  has  come  about  in  the  altered  world  in  which 
we  now  find  ourselves  that  justice  and  the 
rights  of  peoples  affect  the  whole  field  of  in- 
ternational deaHng,  as  much  as  access  to  raw 
materials  and  fair  and  equal  conditions  of 
trade.  Count  von  HertHng  wants  the  essen- 
tial basis  of  commercial  and  industrial  life  to 
be  safeguarded  by  common  agreement  and 
guarantee,  but  he  cannot  expect  that  to  be 
conceded  him,  if  the  other  matters  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  articles  of  peace  are  not 
handled  in  the  same  way  as  items  in  the  final 
accounting.  He  cannot  ask  the  benefit  of 
common  agreement  in  the  one  field  without 
according  it  in  the  other.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  he  sees  that  separate  and  selfish  compacts 
with  regard  to  trade  and  the  essential  materials 
of  manufacture  would  afford  no  foundation  for 
peace.  Neither,  he  may  rest  assured,  will 
separate  and  selfish  compacts  with  regard  to 
provinces  and  peoples. 

Count  Czemin  seems  to  see  the  fundamental 
elements  of  peace  with  clear  eyes  and  does 
not  seek  to  obscure  them.     He  sees  that  an 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS        17 

independent  Poland,  made  up  of  all  the  indis- 
putably Polish  peoples  who  lie  contiguous  to 
one  another,  is  a  matter  of  European  concern, 
and  must,  of  course,  be  conceded;  that  Bel- 
gium must  be  evacuated  and  restored,  no 
matter  what  sacrifices  and  concessions  that 
may  involve,  and  that  national  aspirations 
must  be  satisfied,  even  within  his  own  Empire, 
in  the  common  interest  of  Europe  and  man- 
kind. If  he  is  silent  about  questions  which 
touch  the  interest  and  purpose  of  his  allies 
more  nearly  than  they  touch  those  of  Austria 
only,  it  must,  of  course,  be  because  he  feels 
constrained,  I  suppose,  to  defer  to  Germany 
and  Turkey  in  the  circumstances. 

Seeing  and  conceding,  as  he  does,  the  es- 
sential principles  involved  and  the  necessity 
of  candidly  applying  them,  he  naturally  feels 
that  Austria  can  respond  to  the  purpose  of 
peace  as  expressed  by  the  United  States  with 
less  embarrassment  than  could  Germany.  He 
would  probably  have  gone  much  further  had 
it  not  been  for  the  embarrassments  of  Aus- 
tria's alliances  and  of  her  dependence  upon 
Germany. 

PRINCIPLES   TO    BE    APPLIED 

After  all,  the  test  of  whether  it  is  possible 
for  either  Government  to  go  any  further  in 
this  comparison  of  views  is  simple  and  obvious. 
The  principles  to  be  applied  are  these: 


i8  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

First,  that  each  part  of  the  final  settlement 
must  be  based  upon  the  essential  justice  of 
that  particular  case,  and  upon  such  adjust- 
ments as  are  most  likely  to  bring  a  peace  that 
will  be  permanent. 

Second,  that  peoples  and  provinces  are  not 
to  be  bartered  about  from  sovereignty  to  sov- 
ereignty, as  if  they  were  mere  chattels  and 
pawns  in  a  game,  even  the  great  game,  now 
forever  discredited,  of  the  balance  of  power; 
but  that. 

Third,  every  territorial  settlement  involved 
in  this  war  must  be  made  in  the  interest  and 
for  the  benefit  of  the  populations  concerned, 
and  not  as  a  part  of  any  mere  adjustment  or 
compromise  of  claims  among  rival  states;  and, 

Fourth,  that  all  well-defined  national  as- 
pirations shall  be  accorded  the  utmost  satis- 
faction that  can  be  accorded  them  without 
introducing  new  or  perpetuating  old  elements 
of  discord  and  antagonism  that  would  be 
likely  in  time  to  break  the  peace  of  Europe 
and  consequently  of  the  world. 

A  general  peace  erected  upon  such  founda- 
tions can  be  discussed.  Until  such  a  peace 
can  be  secured  we  have  no  choice  but  to  go 
on.  So  far  as  we  can  judge,  these  principles 
that  we  regard  as  fundamental  are  already 
ever3rwhere  accepted  as  imperative  except 
among  the  spokesmen  of  the  military  and  an- 
nexationist party  in  Germany.     If  they  have 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONGRESS        19 

anywhere  else  been  rejected  the  objectors 
have  not  been  sufficiently  numerous  or  in- 
fluential to  make  their  voices  audible.  The 
tragical  circumstance  is  that  this  one  party 
in  Germany  is  apparently  willing  and  able  to 
send  millions  of  men  to  their  death  to  prevent 
what  all  the  world  now  sees  to  be  just. 

A   WAR   OF   EMANCIPATION 

I  would  not  be  a  true  spokesman  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  if  I  did  not  say 
once  more  that  we  entered  this  war  upon  no 
small  occasion  and  that  we  can  never  turn 
back  from  a  course  chosen  upon  principle. 
Our  resources  are,  in  part,  mobilized  now, 
and  we  shall  not  pause  until  they  are  mobilized 
in  their  entirety.  Our  armies  are  rapidly  go- 
ing to  the  fighting  front,  and  will  go  more  and 
more  rapidly.  Our  whole  strength  will  be  put 
into  this  war  of  emancipation — emancipation 
from  the  threat  and  attempted  mastery  of 
selfish  groups  of  autocratic  rulers — ^whatever 
the  difficulties  and  present  partial  delays. 
We  are  indomitable  in  our  power  of  indepen- 
dent action  and  can  in  no  circumstances  con- 
sent to  live  in  a  world  governed  by  intrigue 
and  force.  We  believe  that  our  own  desire 
for  a  new  international  order  under  which 
reason  and  justice  and  the  common  interests 
of  mankind  shall  prevail  is  the  desire  of  en- 
lightened   men    everywhere.     Without    that 


20  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

new  order  the  world  will  be  without  peace 
and  human  life  will  lack  tolerable  conditions  of 
existence  and  development.  Having  set  our 
hand  to  the  task  of  achieving  it,  we  shall  not 
turn  back. 

I  hope  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to 
add,  no  word  of  what  I  have  said  is  intended 
as  a  threat.  That  is  not  the  temper  of  our 
people.  I  have  spoken  thus  only  that  the 
whole  world  may  know  the  true  spirit  of 
America — that  men  ever3rwhere  may  know 
that  our  passion  for  justice  and  for  self-govern- 
ment is  no  mere  passion  of  words,  but  a  passion 
which,  once  set  in  action,  must  be  satisfied. 
The  power  of  the  United  States  is  a  menace 
to  no  nation  or  people.  It  will  never  be  used 
in  aggression  or  for  the  aggrandizement  of  any 
selfish  interest  of  our  own.  It  springs  out  of 
freedom,  and  is  for  the  service  of  freedom. 


Ill 


CO-OPERATION  OR  OBSTRUCTION? 

(Message    to    Striking    Carpenters    in    Eastern    Shipyards, 
February  ly,  1918) 

William  L.  Hutcheson,  General  Presi- 
dent United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters 
AND  Joiners  of  America,  New  York, — I 
have  received  your  telegram  of  yesterday  and 
am  very  glad  to  note  the  expression  of  your 
desire  as  a  patriotic  citizen  to  assist  in  carry- 
ing on  the  work  by  which  we  are  trying  to 
save  America  and  men  everywhere  who  work 
and  are  free.  Taking  advantage  of  that  assur- 
ance, I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  the  strike  of  the  carpenters 
in  the  shipyards  is  in  marked  and  painful  con- 
trast to  the  action  of  labor  in  other  trades  and 
places.  Ships  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
winning  of  the  war.  No  one  can  strike  a 
deadher  blow  at  the  safety  of  the  nation  and 
of  its  forces  on  the  other  side  than  by  inter- 
fering with  or  obstructing  the  shipbuilding 
program. 

All  the  other  unions  engaged  in  this  indis- 


22  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

pensable  work  have  agreed  to  abide  by  the 
decisions  of  the  Shipbuilding  Wage  Adjust- 
ment Board.  That  Board  has  dealt  fairly  and 
liberally  with  all  who  have  resorted  to  it.  I 
must  say  to  you  very  frankly  that  it  is  your 
duty  to  leave  to  it  the  solution  of  your  present 
difficulties  with  yoiu*  employers  and  to  advise 
the  men  whom  you  represent  to  return  at 
once  to  work,  pending  the  decision.  No  body 
of  men  have  the  moral  right  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  the  nation  to  strike  imtil 
every  method  of  adjustment  has  been  tried  to 
the  limit.  If  you  do  not  act  upon  this  prin- 
ciple, you  are  undoubtedly  giving  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  enemy,  whatever  may  be  your 
own  conscious  purpose. 

I  do  not  see  that  anything  will  be  gained 
by  my  seeing  you  personally  until  you  have 
accepted  and  acted  upon  that  principle.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  see  that  the 
best  possible  conditions  of  labor  are  main- 
tained, as  it  is  also  its  duty  to  see  to  it  that 
there  is  no  lawless  and  conscienceless  profiteer- 
ing, and  that  duty  the  Government  has  ac- 
cepted and  will  perform.  Will  you  co-operate 
or  wiU  you  obstruct? 

WooDROw  Wilson. 


IV 

A  PLEDGE  OF  HELP  TO  RUSSIA 
{March  ii,  1918) 

May  I  not  take  advantage  of  the  meeting 
of  the  Congress  of  the  Soviets  to  express  the 
sincere  sympathy  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  feel  for  the  Russian  people  at 
this  moment  when  the  German  power  has  been 
thrust  in  to  interrupt  and  turn  back  the  whole 
struggle  for  freedom  and  substitute  the  wishes 
of  Germany  for  the  purpose  of  the  people  of 
Russia? 

Although  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  is,  unhappily,  not  now  in  a  position 
to  render  the  direct  and  effective  aid  it 
would  wish  to  render,  I  beg  to  assure  the 
people  of  Russia  through  the  Congress  that 
it  will  avail  itself  of  every  opportunity  to 
secure  for  Russia  once  more  complete  sov- 
ereignty and  independence  in  her  own  af- 
fairs and  full  restoration  to  her  great  role 
in    the    life    of    Eiu-ope    and    the    modem 

world. 
3 


24  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

The  whole  heart  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  is  with  the  people  of  Russia  in  the  at- 
tempt to  free*  themselves  forever  from  auto- 
cratic government  and  become  the  masters  of 
their  own  life. 


FORCE  TO  THE  UTMOST,  FOR  RIGHT 
{April  6,  1918) 

At  Baltimore,  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening 
of  the  Third  Liberty  Loan  Campaign^  the  Presi- 
dent spoke  as  follows: 

Fellow-Citizens, — ^This  is  the  anniversary 
of  OUT  acceptance  of  Germany's  challenge  to 
fight  for  our  right  to  live  and  be  free,  and  for 
the  sacred  rights  of  free  men  everywhere.  The 
nation  is  awake.  There  is  no  need  to  call  to  it. 
We  know  what  the  war  must  cost,  our  utmost 
sacrifice,  the  Hves  of  our  fittest  men,  and,  if 
need  be,  all  that  we  possess.  The  loan  we  are 
met  to  discuss  is  one  of  the  least  parts  of  what 
we  are  called  upon  to  give  and  to  do,  though 
in  itself  imperative.  The  people  of  the  whole 
country  are  alive  to  the  necessity  of  it,  and  are 
ready  to  lend  to  the  utmost,  even  where  it  in- 
volves a  sharp  skimping  and  daily  sacrifice  to 
lend  out  of  meager  earnings.  They  will  look 
with  reprobation  and  contempt  upon  those 
who  can  and  will  not,  upon  those  who  demand 
a  higher  rate  of  interest,  upon  those  who  think 
of  it  as  a  mere  commercial  transaction.     I 


26  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

have  not  come,  therefore,  to  urge  the  loan. 
I  have  come  only  to  give  you,  if  I  can,  a  more 
vivid  conception  of  what  it  is  for. 

THE    CAUSE   WE   FIGHT   FOR 

The  reasons  for  this  great  war,  the  reason 
why  it  had  to  come,  the  need  to  fight  it 
through,  and  the  issues  that  hang  upon  its 
outcome,  are  more  clearly  disclosed  now  than 
ever  before.  It  is  easy  to  see  just  what  this 
particular  loan  means  because  the  cause  we 
are  fighting  for  stands  more  sharply  revealed 
than  at  any  previous  crisis  of  the  momentous 
struggle.  The  man  who  knows  least  can  now 
see  plainly  how  the  cause  of  justice  stands  and 
what  the  imperishable  thing  is  he  is  asked  to 
invest  in.  Men  in  America  may  be  more  sure 
than  they  ever  were  before  that  the  cause  is 
their  own,  and  that,  if  it  should  be  lost,  their 
own  great  nation's  place  and  mission  in  the 
world  would  be  lost  with  it. 

I  call  you  to  witness,  my  fellow-countrymen, 
that  at  no  stage  of  this  terrible  business  have 
I  judged  the  purposes  of  Germany  intem- 
perately.  I  should  be  ashamed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  affairs  so  grave,  so  fraught  with  the 
destinies  of  mankind  throughout  all  the  world, 
to  speak  with  truculence,  to  use  the  weak  lan- 
guage of  hatred  or  vindictive  purpose.  We 
must  judge  as  we  would  be  judged.  I  have 
sought  to  learn  the  objects  Germany  has  in 


FORCE  TO  THE  UTMOST  27 

this  war  from  the  mouths  of  her  own  spokes- 
men, and  to  deal  as  frankly  with  them  as  I 
wished  them  to  deal  with  me.  I  have  laid 
bare  our  own  ideals,  our  own  purposes,  without 
reserve  or  doubtful  phrase,  and  have  asked 
them  to  say  as  plainly  what  it  is  that  they  seek. 

We  have  ourselves  proposed  no  injustice, 
no  aggression.  We  are  ready,  whenever  the 
final  reckoning  is  made,  to  be  just  to  the  Ger- 
man people,  deal  fairly  with  the  German  power, 
as  with  all  others.  There  can  be  no  difference 
between  peoples  in  the  final  judgment,  if  it  is 
indeed  to  be  a  righteous  judgment.  To  pro- 
pose anything  but  justice,  even-handed  and 
dispassionate  justice,  to  Germany  at  any  time, 
whatever  the  outcome  of  the  war,  would  be  to 
renounce  and  dishonor  our  own  cause.  For  we 
ask  nothing  that  we  are  not  willing  to  accord. 

It  has  been  with  this  thought  that  I  have 
sought  to  learn  from  those  who  spoke  for  Ger- 
many whether  it  was  justice  or  dominion  and 
the  execution  of  their  own  will  upon  the  other 
nations  of  the  world  that  the  German  leaders 
were  seeking.  They  have  answered,  answered 
in  unmistakable  terms.  They  have  avowed 
that  it  was  not  justice,  but  dominion  and  the 
unhindered  execution  of  their  own  will. 

Germany's  real  rulers 

The  avowal  has  not  come  from  Germany's 
statesmen.      It  has  come  from  her  military 


28  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

leaders,  who  are  her  real  rulers.  Her  states- 
men have  said  that  they  wished  peace,  and 
were  ready  to  discuss  its  terms  whenever  their 
opponents  were  willing  to  sit  down  at  the  con- 
ference table  with  them.  Her  present  Chancel- 
lor has  said — in  indefinite  and  uncertain  terms, 
indeed,  and  in  phrases  that  often  seem  to  deny 
their  own  meaning,  but  with  as  much  plain- 
ness as  he  thought  prudent — that  he  believed 
that  peace  should  be  based  upon  the  prin- 
ciples which  we  had  declared  would  be  oiu*  own 
in  the  final  settlement.  At  Brest-Litovsk  her 
civilian  delegates  spoke  in  similar  terms ;  pro- 
fessed their  desire  to  conclude  a  fair  peace  and 
accord  to  the  peoples  with  whose  fortunes  they 
were  dealing  the  right  to  choose  their  own 
allegiances.  But  action  accompanied  and  fol- 
lowed the  profession.  Their  military  masters, 
the  men  who  act  for  Germany  and  exhibit  her 
purpose  in  execution,  proclaimed  a  very  dif- 
ferent conclusion.  We  cannot  mistake  what 
they  have  done — in  Russia,  in  Finland,  in  the 
Ukraine,  in  Rumania.  The  real  test  of  their 
justice  and  fair  play  has  come.  From  this  we 
may  judge  the  rest.  They  are  enjoying  in  Rus- 
sia a  cheap  triumph  in  which  no  brave  or  gal- 
lant nation  can  long  take  pride.  A  great  peo- 
ple, helpless  by  their  own  act,  lies  for  the  time 
at  their  mercy.  Their  fair  professions  are  for- 
gotten. They  nowhere  set  v^p  justice,  but 
everywhere  impose  their  power  and  exploit 


FORCE  TO  THE  UTMOST  29 

everything  for  their  own  use  and  aggrandize- 
ment ;  and  the  peoples  of  conquered  provinces 
are  invited  to  be  free  under  their  dominion ! 

THE   AIM    OF   KULTUR 

Are  we  not  justified  in  believing  that  they 
would  do  the  same  things  at  their  western  front 
if  they  were  not  there  face  to  face  with  armies 
whom  even  their  countless  divisions  cannot 
overcome  ?  If,  when  they  have  felt  their  check 
to  be  final,  they  should  propose  favorable  and 
equitable  terms  with  regard  to  Belgium  and 
France  and  Italy,  could  they  blame  us  if  we 
concluded  that  they  did  so  only  to  assiu-e 
themselves  of  a  free  hand  in  Russia  and  the 
East? 

Their  purpose  is  undoubtedly  to  make  all 
the  Slavic  peoples,  all  the  free  and  ambitious 
nations  of  the  Baltic  peninsula,  all  the  lands 
that  Turkey  has  dominated  and  misruled,  sub- 
ject to  their  will  and  ambition,  and  build  upon 
that  dominion  an  empire  of  force  upon  which 
they  fancy  that  they  can  then  erect  an  em- 
pire of  gain  and  commercial  supremacy — an 
empire  as  hostile  to  the  Americas  as  to  the 
Eiu^ope  which  it  will  overawe — an  empire 
which  will  ultimately  master  Persia,  India,  and 
the  peoples  of  the  Far  East.  In  such  a  pro- 
gram our  ideals,  the  ideals  of  justice  and 
humanity  and  liberty,  the  principle  of  the  free 
self-determination  of  nations  upon  which  all 


30  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

the  modern  world  insists,  can  play  no  part. 
They  are  rejected  for  the  ideals  of  power,  for 
the  principle  that  the  strong  must  rule  the 
weak,  that  trade  must  follow  the  flag,  whether 
those  to  whom  it  is  taken  welcome  it  or  not, 
that  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  to  be  made 
subject  to  the  patronage  and  overlordship  of 
those  who  have  the  power  to  enforce  it. 

That  program  once  carried  out,  America 
and  all  who  care  or  dare  to  stand  with  her  must 
arm  and  prepare  themselves  to  contest  the 
mastery  of  the  world,  a  mastery  in  which  the 
rights  of  common  men,  the  rights  of  women 
and  of  all  who  are  weak,  must  for  the  time 
being  be  trodden  under  foot  and  disregarded, 
and  the  old,  age-long  struggle  for  freedom  and 
right  begin  again  at  its  beginning.  Everything 
that  America  has  lived  for  and  loved  and  grown 
great  to  vindicate  and  bring  to  a  glorious  reali- 
zation vnll  have  fallen  in  utter  ruin  and  the 
gates  of  mercy  once  more  pitilessly  shut  upon 
mankind ! 

The  thing  is  preposterous  and  impossible; 
and  yet  is  not  that  what  the  whole  coiu-se  and 
action  of  the  German  armies  has  meant  wher- 
ever they  have  moved  ?  I  do  not  wish,  even  in 
this  moment  of  utter  disillusionment,  to  judge 
harshly  or  unrighteously.  I  judge  only  what 
the  German  arms  have  accomplished  with  im- 
pitying  thoroughness  throughout  every  fair 
region  they  have  touched. 


FORCE  TO  THE  UTMOST  31 

What,  then,  are  we  to  do?  For  myself,  I  am 
ready,  ready  still,  ready  even  now,  to  discuss 
a  fair  and  just  and  honest  peace  at  any  time 
that  it  is  sincerely  purposed — a  peace  in  which 
the  strong  and  the  weak  shall  fare  alike.  But 
the  answer,  when  I  proposed  such  a  peace, 
came  from  the  German  commanders  in  Rus- 
sia, and  I  cannot  mistake  the  meaning  of  the 
answer. 

FORCE,  FORCE  TO  THE  UTMOST 

I  accept  the  challenge.  I  know  that  you 
accept  it.  All  the  world  shall  know  that  you 
accept  it.  It  shall  appear  in  the  utter  sacrifice 
and  self-forgetfulness  with  which  w^e  shall  give 
all  that  we  love  and  all  that  we  have  to  redeem 
the  world  and  make  it  fit  for  free  men  like 
ourselves  to  live  in.  This  now  is  the  meaning 
of  all  that  we  do.  Let  everything  that  we  say, 
my  fellow-countrymen,  everything  that  we 
henceforth  plan  and  accomplish,  ring  true  to 
this  response  till  the  majesty  and  might  of  our 
concerted  power  shall  fill  the  thought  and  ut- 
terly defeat  the  force  of  those  who  flout  and 
misprize  what  we  honor  and  hold  dear.  Ger- 
many has  once  more  said  that  force,  and  force 
alone,  shall  decide  whether  justice  and  peace 
shall  reign  in  the  affairs  of  men,  whether 
Right  as  America  conceives  it  or  Dominion  as 
she  conceives  it  shall  determine  the  destinies 
of  mankind.    There  is,  therefore,  but  one  re- 


32  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

sponse  possible  from  us:  Force,  Force  to  the 
utmost,  Force  without  stint  or  limit,  the 
righteous  and  triumphant  Force  which  shall 
make  Right  the  law  of  the  world,  and  cast 
every  selfish  dominion  down  in  the  dust. 


VI 

THE    BURDEN    OF   WAR    TAXATION 
{Address  to  the  Congress,  May  27,  igi8) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress, — It  is  with 
unaffected  reluctance  that  I  come  to  ask  you 
to  prolong  your  session  long  enough  to  pro- 
vide more  adequate  resources  for  the  Treas- 
tuy  for  the  conduct  of  the  war.  I  have 
reason  to  appreciate  as  fully  as  you  do  how 
arduous  the  session  has  been.  Your  labors 
have  been  severe  and  protracted.  You 
have  passed  a  long  series  of  measures  which 
required  the  debate  of  many  doubtful  ques- 
tions of  judgment,  and  many  exceedingly 
difficult  questions  of  principle,  as  well  as  of 
practice.  The  summer  is  upon  us  in  which 
labor  and  counsel  are  twice  arduous,  and  are 
constantly  apt  to  be  impaired  by  lassitude 
and  fatigue.  The  elections  are  at  hand,  and 
we  ought  as  soon  as  possible  to  go  and  render 
an  intimate  account  of  oiu*  trusteeship  to 
the  people  who  delegated  us  to  act  for  them 
in  the  weighty  and  anxious  matters  that 
crowd  upon  us  in  these  days  of  critical  choice 


34  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

and  action.  But  we  dare  not  go  to  the  elec- 
tions until  we  have  done  our  duty  to  the  full. 
These  are  days  when  duty  stands  stark  and 
naked,  and  even  with  closed  eyes  we  know 
it  is  there.  Excuses  are  unavailing.  We 
have  either  done  our  duty  or  we  have  not. 
The  fact  will  be  as  gross  and  plain  as  the  duty 
itself.  In  such  a  case  lassitude  and  fatigue 
seem  negligible  enough.  The  facts  are  tonic 
and  suffice  to  freshen  the  labor. 

WHAT  ARE  THE  FACTS  ? 

And  the  facts  are  these :  Additional  reven- 
ues must  manifestly  be  provided  for.  It 
would  be  a  most  unsound  policy  to  raise  too 
large  a  proportion  of  them  by  loan,  and  it  is 
evident  that  the  four  billions  now  provided 
for  by  taxation  "will  not  of  themselves  sus- 
tain the  greatly  enlarged  budget  to  which 
we  must  immediately  look  forward.  We 
cannot  in  fairness  wait  until  the  end  of  the 
fiscal  year  is  at  hand  to  apprise  our  people 
of  the  taxes  they  must  pay  on  their  earnings 
of  the  present  calendar  year,  whose  account- 
ings and  expenditures  will  then  be  closed. 
We  cannot  get  increased  taxes  unless  the  coun- 
try knows  what  they  are  to  be  and  practises 
the  necessary  economy  to  make  them  avail- 
able. Definiteness,  early  definiteness,  as  to 
what  its  tasks  are  to  be  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  successful  administration  of  the  Treas- 


THE  BURDEN  OF  WAR  TAXATION  35 

ury.  It  cannot  frame  fair  and  workable 
regulations  in  haste,  and  it  must  frame  its 
regulations  in  haste  if  it  is  not  to  know  its 
exact  task  until  the  very  eve  of  its  performance. 
The  present  tax  laws  are  marred,  moreover, 
by  inequities  which  ought  to  be  remedied. 
Indisputable  facts,  every  one,  and  we  cannot 
alter  or  blink  them.  To  state  them  is  argu- 
ment enough. 

DANGERS    OF    INFLATION 

And  yet  perhaps  you  will  permit  me  to 
dwell  for  a  moment  upon  the  situation  they 
disclose.  Enormous  loans  freely  spent  in 
the  stimulation  of  industry  of  almost  every 
sort  produce  inflations  and  extravagances 
which  presently  make  the  whole  economic 
structure  questionable  and  insecure,  and  the 
very  basis  of  credit  is  cut  away.  Only  fair, 
equitably  distributed  taxation  of  the  widest 
incidence  and  drawing  chiefly  from  the  sources 
which  would  be  Hkely  to  demoralize  credit 
by  their  very  abundance  can  prevent  infla- 
tion and  keep  our  industrial  system  free  of 
speculation  and  waste.  We  shall  naturally 
turn,  therefore,  I  suppose,  to  war  profits 
and  incomes  and  luxuries  for  the  additional 
taxes.  But  the  war  profits  and  incomes  up- 
on which  the  increased  taxes  will  be  levied 
will  be  the  profits  and  incomes  of  the  calendar 
year    1918.     It   would   be   manifestly   unfair 


36  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

to  wait  until  the  early  months  of  19 19  to  say 
what  they  are  to  be.  It  might  be  difficult, 
I  should  imagine,  to  run  the  mill  with  water 
that  had  already  gone  over  the  wheel. 

Moreover,  taxes  of  that  sort  will  not  be 
paid  until  the  June  of  the  next  year,  and  the 
Treasury  must  anticipate  them.  It  must 
use  the  money  they  are  to  produce  before  it 
is  due.  It  must  sell  short-time  certificates  of 
indebtedness.  In  the  autumn  a  much  larger 
sale  of  long-time  bonds  must  be  effected 
than  has  yet  been  attempted.  What  are  the 
bankers  to  think  of  the  certificates  if  they  do 
not  certainly  know  where  the  money  is  to 
come  from  which  is  to  take  them  up  ?  And 
how  are  investors  to  approach  the  piu*chase 
of  bonds  with  any  sort  of  confidence  or  knowl- 
edge of  their  own  affairs  if  they  do  not  know 
what  taxes  they  are  to  pay  and  what  econo- 
mies and  adjustments  of  their  business  they 
must  effect?  I  cannot  assiu-e  the  country 
of  a  successful  administration  of  the  Treas- 
lury  in  1918  if  the  question  of  further  taxation 
is  to  be  left  undecided  until  19 19. 

AT   THE    CRISIS    OF    THE    WAR 

The  consideration  that  dominates  every 
other  now,  and  makes  every  other  seem 
trivial  and  negligible,  is  the  winning  of  the  war. 
We  are  not  only  in  the  midst  of  the  war,  we 
are  at  the  very  peak  and  crisis  of  it.     Hun- 


THE  BURDEN  OF  WAR  TAXATION  37 

dreds  and  thousands  of  our  men,  carrying 
our  hearts  with  them  and  our  fortunes,  are  in 
the  field,  and  ships  are  crowding  faster  and 
faster  to  the  ports  of  France  and  England 
with  regiment  after  regiment,  thousand  after 
thousand,  to  join  them  until  the  enemy  shall 
be  beaten  and  brought  to  reckoning  with  man- 
kind. There  can  be  no  pause  or  intermission. 
The  great  enterprise  must,  on  the  contrary, 
be  pushed  with  greater  and  greater  energy. 
The  volume  of  oiu*  might  must  steadily  and 
rapidly  be  augmented  until  there  can  be  no 
question  of  resisting  it. 

If  that  is  to  be  accomplished,  gentlemen, 
money  must  sustain  it  to  the  utmost.  Our 
financial  program  must  no  more  be  left  in 
doubt  or  suffered  to  lag  than  our  ordnance 
program  or  our  ship  program  or  our  muni- 
tions program,  or  oiu:  program  for  making 
millions  of  men  ready.  These  others  are  not 
programs,  indeed,  but  mere  plans  upon  paper, 
unless  there  is  to  be  an  unquestionable  supply 
of  money. 

POLITICS  IS  ADJOURNED 

That  is  the  situation,  and  it  is  the  situa- 
tion which  creates  the  duty,  no  choice  or 
preference  of  ours.  There  is  only  one  way  to 
meet  that  duty.  We  must  meet  it  without 
selfishness  or  fear  of  consequences.  Politics 
is  adjoiuned.     The  elections  will  go  to  those 


38  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

who  think  least  of  it :  to  those  who  go  to  the 
constituencies  without  explanations  or  ex- 
cuses, with  a  plain  record  of  duty  faithfully 
and  disinterestedly  performed,  I,  for  one,  am 
always  confident  that  the  people  of  this  coim- 
try  will  give  a  just  verdict  upon  the  service 
of  the  men  who  act  for  them  when  the  facts 
are  such  that  no  man  can  disguise  or  conceal 
them.  There  is  no  danger  of  deceit  now. 
An  intense  and  pitiless  light  beats  upon  every 
man  and  every  action  in  this  tragic  blot  of 
war  that  is  now  upon  the  state.  If  lobbyists 
hurry  to  Washington  to  attempt  to  turn  what 
you  do  in  the  matter  of  taxation  to  their 
protection  or  advantage,  the  light  will  beat 
also  upon  them.  There  is  abundant  fuel  for 
the  light  in  the  records  of  the  Treasury  with  re- 
gard to  profits  of  every  sort.  The  profiteer- 
ing that  cannot  be  got  at  by  the  restraints  of 
conscience  and  love  of  country  can  be  got  at 
by  taxation.  There  is  such  profiteering  now, 
and  the  information  with  regard  to  it  is  avail- 
able and  indisputable. 

Having  finished  the  reading  of  his  prepared 
address,  the  President  paused,  laid  his  hand 
over  his  manuscript,  and  then  added  the  fol- 
lowing words,  speaking  extemporaneously: 

May  I  add  just  this  word,  gentlemen — 
just  as  I  was  leaving  the  White  House  I  was 


THE  BURDEN  OF  WAR  TAXATION  39 

told  that  the  expected  drive  on  the  west 
front  had  apparently  been  begun.  You  ap- 
parently realize  how  that  solemnized  my 
feeling  as  I  came  to  you,  and  how  it  seemed  to 
strengthen  the  purpose  which  I  have  tried  to 
express  in  these  lines. 

I  have  admired  the  work  of  this  session. 
The  way  in  which  the  two  Houses  of  Congress 
have  co-operated  with  the  Executive  has  been 
generous  and  admirable,  and  it  is  not  in  any 
spirit  of  suggesting  duty  neglected,  but  only 
to  remind  you  of  the  common  cause  and  the 
common  obligations  that  I  have  ventured  to 
come   to   you   to-day. 

I  am  advising  you  to  act  upon  this  matter 
of  taxation  now,  gentlemen,  not  because  I 
do  not  know  that  you  can  see  and  interpret 
the  facts  and  the  duty  they  impose  just  as  well 
and  with  as  clear  a  perception  of  the  obli- 
gations involved  as  I  can,  but  because  there 
is  a  certain  solemn  satisfaction  in  sharing 
with  you  the  responsibilities  of  such  a  time. 
The  world  never  stood  in  such  case  before. 
Men  never  before  had  so  clear  or  so  moving 
a  vision  of  duty.  I  know  that  you  will  be- 
grudge the  work  to  be  done  here  by  us  no  more 
than  the  men  begrudge  us  theirs  who  lie  in 
the  trenches  and  sally  forth  to  their  death. 
There  is  a  stimulating  comradeship  knitting 
us  all  together.     And  this  task  to  which  I 

invite  your  immediate  consideration  will  be 
4 


40  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

performed  under  favorable  influences  if  we 
will  look  to  what  the  country  is  thinking  and 
expecting  and  care  nothing  at  all  for  what 
is  being  said  and  believed  in  the  lobbies  of 
Washington  hotels,  where  the  atmosphere 
seems  to  make  it  possible  to  believe  what  is 
believed  nowhere  else. 

PEOPLE   UNITED   FOR   SACRIFICE 

Have  you  not  felt  the  spirit  of  the  nation 
rise  and  its  thought  become  a  single  and 
common  thought  since  these  eventful  days 
came  in  which  we  have  been  sending  our  boys 
to  the  other  side?  I  think  you  must  read 
that  thought,  as  I  do,  to  mean  this,  that  the 
people  of  this  country  are  not  only  united  in 
the  resolute  purpose  to  win  this  war,  but  are 
ready  and  willing  to  bear  any  burden  and 
undergo  any  sacrifice  that  it  may  be  necessary 
for  them  to  bear  in  order  to  win  it.  We  need 
not  be  afraid  to  tax  them,  if  we  lay  taxes 
justly.  They  know  that  the  war  must  be 
paid  for  and  that  it  is  they  who  must  pay  for 
it,  and  if  the  burden  is  justly  distributed  and 
the  sacrifice  made  a  common  sacrifice,  from 
which  none  escapes  who  can  bear  it  at  all, 
they  will  carry  it  cheerfully  and  with  a  sort 
of  solemn  pride.  I  have  always  been  proud 
to  be  an  American,  and  was  never  more  proud 
than  now,  when  all  that  we  have  said  and 
all  that  we  have  foreseen  about  our  people  is 


THE  BURDEN  OF  WAR  TAXATION  41 

coming  true.  The  great  days  have  come  when 
the  only  thing  that  they  ask  for  or  admire  is 
duty  greatly  and  adequately  done ;  when  their 
only  wish  for  America  is  that  she  may  share 
the  freedom  she  enjoys;  when  a  great,  com- 
pelling sympathy  wells  up  in  their  hearts  for 
men  everywhere  who  suffer  and  are  oppressed, 
and  when  they  see  at  last  the  high  uses  for 
which  their  wealth  has  been  piled  up  and 
their  mighty  power  accumulated,  and  counting 
neither  blood  nor  treasure,  now  that  their 
final  day  of  opportunity  has  come,  rejoice 
to  spend  and  to  be  spent  through  a  long 
night  of  suffering  and  terror,  in  order  that 
they  and  men  everywhere  may  see  the  dawn 
of  a  day  of  righteousness  and  justice  and 
peace.  Shall  we  grow  weary  when  they  bid 
us  act? 


VII 

INDEPENDENCE  DAY  ADDRESS 
{July  4,  1918) 

At  an  Independence  Day  gathering  on  the 
lawns  of  Mount  Vernon,  in  his  address  to  a 
group  oj  Government  officials  and  diplomats 
of  the  Allied  nations ,  the  President  spoke  as 
follows: 

Gentlemen  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps  and 
My  Fellow-citizens, — I  am  happy  to  draw 
apart  with  you  to  this  quiet  place  of  old 
counsel  in  order  to  speak  a  little  of  the  mean- 
ing of  this  day  of  our  nation's  independence. 
The  place  §eems  very  still  and  remote.  It 
is  as  serene  and  untouched  by  the  hurry  of 
the  world  as  it  was  in  those  great  days  long 
ago  when  General  Washington  was  here  and 
held  leisurely  conference  with  the  men  who 
were  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the  creation 
of  a  nation.  From  these  gentle  slopes  they 
looked  out  upon  the  world  and  saw  it  whole, 
saw  it  with  the  Hght  of  the  future  upon  it, 
saw  it  with  modern  eyes  that  turned  away 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  ADDRESS      43 

from  a  past  which  men  of  Hberated  spirits 
could  no  longer  endure.  It  is  for  that  reason 
that  we  cannot  feel  even  here,  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  this  sacred  tomb,  that  this  is  a 
place  of  death.  It  was  a  place  of  achieve- 
ment. A  great  promise  that  was  meant  for 
all  mankind  was  here  given  plan  and  reality. 
The  associations  by  which  we  are  here  sur- 
rounded are  the  inspiriting  associations  of  that 
noble  death  which  is  only  a  glorious  con- 
summation. From  this  green  hillside  we  also 
ought  to  be  able  to  see  wdth  comprehending 
eyes  the  world  that  lies  around  us  and  con- 
ceive anew  the  purpose  that  must  set  m.en 
free. 

SPEAKING   FOR   A   PEOPLE 

It  is  significant — significant  of  their  own 
character  and  purpose  and  of  the  influences 
they  were  setting  afoot — that  Washington 
and  his  associates,  Hke  the  barons  at  Runny- 
mede,  spoke  and  acted,  not  for  a  class,  but 
for  a  people.  It  has  been  left'  for  us  to  see 
to  it  that  it  shall  be  understood  that  they 
spoke  and  acted,  not  for  a  single  people  only, 
but  for  all  mankind.  They  were  thinking, 
not  of  themselves  and  of  the  material  interests 
which  centered  in  the  little  groups  of  land- 
holders and  merchants  and  men  of  affairs  with 
whom  they  were  accustomed  to  act,  in  Vir- 
ginia and  the  colonies  to  the  north  and  south 


44  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

of  her,  but  of  a  people  which  wished  to  be  done 
with  classes  and  special  interests  and  the  au- 
thority of  men  whom  they  had  not  them- 
selves chosen  to  rule  over  them.  They  en- 
tertained no  private  purpose,  desired  no 
peculiar  privilege.  They  were  consciously 
planning  that  men  of  every  class  should  be 
free  and  America  a  place  to  which  men  out  of 
every  nation  might  resort  who  wished  to  share 
with  them  the  rights  and  privileges  of  free 
men. 

And  we  take  our  cue  from  them — do  we 
not?  We  intend  what  they  intended.  We 
here  in  America  beHeve  our  participation  in 
this  present  war  to  be  only  the  fruitage  of 
what  they  planted.  Our  case  differs  from 
theirs  only  in  this,  that  it  is  our  inestimable 
privilege  to  concert  with  men  out  of  every 
nation  what  shall  make  not  only  the  liberties 
of  America  secure,  but  the  liberties  of  every 
other  people  as  well.  We  are  happy  in  the 
thought  that  we  are  permitted  to  do  what 
they  would  have  done  had  they  been  in  our 
place.  There  must  now  be  settled,  once  for 
all,  what  was  settled  for  America  in  the  great 
age  upon  whose  inspiration  we  draw  to-day. 
This  is  surely  a  fitting  place  from  which  calmly 
to  look  out  upon  our  task,  that  we  may 
fortify  OUT  spirits  for  its  accomplishment. 
And  this  is  the  appropriate  place  from  which 
to  avow,  alike  to  the  friends  who  look  on  and 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  ADDRESS      45 

to  the  friends  with  whom  we  have  the  happi- 
ness to  be  associated  in  action,  the  faith  and 
purpose  with  which  we  act. 

CONCEPTION   OF  THE  GREAT  STRUGGLE 

This,  then,  is  our  conception  of  the  great 
struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged.  The 
plot  is  written  plain  upon  every  scene  and 
every  act  of  the  supreme  tragedy.  On  the 
one  hand  stand  the  peoples  of  the  world — 
not  only  the  peoples  actually  engaged,  but 
many  others  also  who  suffer  under  mastery, 
but  cannot  act;  peoples  of  many  races  and  in 
every  part  of  the  world — the  people  of  stricken 
Russia  still,  among  the  rest,  though  they  are 
for  the  moment  unorganized  and  helpless. 
Opposed  to  them,  masters  of  many  armies, 
stand  an  isolated,  friendless  group  of  Govern- 
ments who  speak  no  common  purpose,  but  only 
selfish  ambitions  of  their  own  by  which  none 
can  profit  but  themselves,  and  whose  peo- 
ples are  fuel  in  their  hands;  Governments 
which  fear  their  people  and  yet  are  for  the  time 
their  sovereign  lords,  making  every  choice 
for  them  and  disposing  of  their  lives  and  fort- 
unes as  they  will,  as  well  as  of  the  Hves  and 
fortunes  of  every  people  who  fall  under  their 
power — Governments  clothed  with  the  strange 
trappings  and  the  primitive  authority  of  an 
age  that  is  altogether  alien  and  hostile  to  otir 
own.    The  past  and  the  present  are  in  deadly 


46  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

grapple,  and  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  be- 
ing done  to  death  between  them. 

THE    ISSUE   DEFINED 

There  can  be  but  one  issue.  The  settle- 
ment must  be  final.  There  can  be  no  com- 
promise. No  half-way  decision  would  be 
tolerable.  No  half-way  decision  is  conceiv- 
able. These  are  the  ends  for  which  the  as- 
sociated peoples  of  the  world  are  fighting  and 
which  must  be  conceded  them  before  there 
can  be  peace. 

I.  The  destruction  of  every  arbitrary  power 
anywhere  that  can  separately,  secretly,  and 
of  its  single  choice  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
world ;  or,  if  it  cannot  be  presently  destroyed, 
at  the  least  its  reduction  to  virtual  impotence. 

II.  The  settlement  of  every  question, 
whether  of  territory,  of  sovereignty,  of  eco- 
nomic arrangement,  or  of  political  relationship, 
upon  the  basis  of  the  free  acceptance  of  that 
settlement  by  the  people  immediately  con- 
cerned, and  not  upon  the  basis  of  the  material 
interest  or  advantage  of  any  other  nation  or 
people  which  may  desire  a  different  settlement 
for  the  sake  of  its  own  exterior  influence  or 
mastery. 

III.  The  consent  of  all  nations  to  be 
governed  in  their  conduct  toward  each  other 
by  the  same  principles  of  honor  and  of  respect 
for  the  common  law  of  civilized  society  that 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  ADDRESS      47 

govern  the  individual  citizens  of  all  modem 
states  in  their  relations  with  one  another;  to 
the  end  that  all  promises  and  covenants  may 
be  sacredly  observed,  no  private  plots  or  con- 
spiracies hatched,  no  selfish  injuries  wrought 
with  impunity,  and  a  mutual  trust  established 
upon  the  handsome  foundation  of  a  mutual 
respect  for  right. 

IV.  The  establishment  of  an  organization 
of  peace  which  shall  make  it  certain  that  the 
combined  power  of  free  nations  will  check 
every  invasion  of  right  and  serve  to  make  peace 
and  justice  the  more  secure  by  affording  a 
definite  tribunal  of  opinion  to  which  all  must 
submit  and  by  which  every  international 
readjustment  that  cannot  be  amicably  agreed 
upon  by  the  peoples  directly  concerned  shall 
be  sanctioned. 

THE    REIGN    OF    LAW 

These  great  objects  can  be  put  into  a  single 
sentence.  What  we  seek  is  the  reign  of  law, 
based  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed  and 
sustained  by  the  organized  opinion  of  man- 
kind. These  great  ends  cannot  be  achieved 
by  debating  and  seeking  to  reconcile  and  ac- 
commodate what  statesmen  may  wish,  with 
their  projects  for  balances  of  power  and  of 
national  opportunity.  They  can  be  realized 
only  by  determination  of  what  the  think- 
ing peoples  of  the  world  desire,  with  their 


48  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

longing  hope  for  justice  and  for  social  free- 
dom and  opportunity. 

I  can  fancy  that  the  air  of  this  place  car- 
ries the  accents  of  such  principles  with  a 
peculiar  kindness.  Here  were  started  forces 
which  the  great  nation  against  which  they  were 
primarily  directed  at  first  regarded  as  a  revolt 
against  its  rightful  authority,  but  which  it 
has  long  since  seen  to  have  been  a  step  in  the 
liberation  of  its  own  people,  as  well  as  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States;  and  I  stand 
here  now  to  speak — speak  proudly  and  with 
confident  hope — of  the  spread  of  this  revolt, 
this  liberation  to  the  great  stage  of  the  world 
itself!  The  blinded  rulers  of  Prussia  have 
aroused  forces  they  knew  little  of — forces 
which,  once  roused,  can  never  be  crushed  to 
earth  again;  for  they  have  at  their  heart  an 
inspiration  and  a  purpose  which  are  deathless 
and  of  the  very  stuff  of  triumph ! 


VIII 

THE  MOB  SPIRIT  DENOUNCED 
(Message  to  the  American  People,  July  26,  igi8) 

My  Fellow-countrymen, — I  take  the  lib- 
erty of  addressing  you  upon  a  subject  which 
so  vitally  affects  the  honor  of  the  nation 
and  the  very  character  and  integrity  of 
our  institutions  that  I  trust  you  will 
think  me  justified  in  speaking  very  plainly 
about  it. 

I  allude  to  the  mob  spirit  which  has  recently 
here  and  there  very  frequently  shown  its  head 
among  us,  not  in  any  single  region,  but  in 
many  and  widely  separated  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. There  have  been  many  lynchings,  and 
every  one  of  them  has  been  a  blow  at  the  heart 
of  ordered  law  and  humane  justice.  No  man 
who  loves  America,  no  man  who  really  cares 
for  her  fame  and  honor  and  character,  or  who 
is  truly  loyal  to  her  institutions,  can  justify 
mob  action  while  the  courts  of  justice  are 
open  and  the  governments  of  the  states  and 
the  nation  are  ready  and  able  to  do  their  duty. 
We  are  at  this  very  moment  fighting  lawless 


50  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

passion.  Germany  has  outlawed  herself  among 
the  nations  because  she  has  disregarded  the 
sacred  obligations  of  law  and  has  made 
lynchers  of  her  armies.  Lynchers  emulate 
her  disgraceful  example.  I,  for  my  part,  am 
anxious  to  see  every  community  in  America 
rise  above  that  level,  with  pride  and  a  fixed 
resolution  which  no  man  or  set  of  men  can 
afford  to  despise. 

A  DISGRACE  TO  DEMOCRACY 

We  proudly  claim  to  be  the  champions  of 
democracy.  If  we  really  are,  in  deed  and 
truth,  let  us  see  to  it  that  we  do  not  discredit 
our  ovm.  I  say  plainly  that  every  American 
who  takes  part  in  the  action  of  a  mob,  or 
gives  any  sort  of  countenance,  is  no  true  son 
of  this  great  democracy,  but  its  betrayer,  and 
does  more  to  discredit  her  by  that  single 
disloyalty  to  her  standards  of  law  and  right 
than  the  words  of  her  statesmen  or  the  sacrifices 
of  her  heroic  boys  in  the  trenches  can  do  to 
make  suffering  peoples  believe  her  to  be  their 
savior.  How  shall  we  commend  democracy 
to  the  acceptance  of  other  peoples  if  we 
disgrace  our  own  by  proving  that  it  is,  after 
all,  no  protection  to  the  weak?  Every  mob 
contributes  to  German  lies  about  the  United 
States,  what  her  most  gifted  liars  cannot  im- 
prove upon  by  the  way  of  calumny.  They 
can  at  least  say  that  such  things  cannot  happen 


THE  MOB  SPIRIT  DENOUNCED       51 

in   Germany  except  in   times  of  revolution, 
when  law  is  swept  away! 

ENDING   THE    EVIL 

I  therefore  very  earnestly  and  solemnly  beg 
that  the  Governors  of  all  the  states,  the  law 
officers  of  every  community,  and,  above  all, 
the  men  and  women  of  every  community  in 
the  United  States,  all  who  revere  America  and 
wish  to  keep  her  name  without  stain  or  re- 
proach, \\dll  co-operate — not  passively  merely, 
but  actively  and  watchfully — to  make  an  end 
of  this  disgraceful  evil.  It  cannot  live  where 
the  community  does  not  countenance  it. 

I  have  called  upon  the  nation  to  put  its 
great  energy  into  this  war,  and  it  has  responded 
- — responded  with  a  spirit  and  a  genius  for 
action  that  has  thrilled  the  world.  I  now  call 
upon  it,  upon  its  men  and  women  everywhere, 
to  see  to  it  that  its  laws  are  kept  inviolate, 
its  fame  untarnished.  Let  us  show  our  utter 
contempt  for  the  things  that  have  made  this 
war  hideous  among  the  wars  of  history  by 
showing  how  those  who  love  Hberty  and  right 
and  justice,  and  are  willing  to  lay  down  their 
lives  for  them  upon  foreign  fields,  stand  ready 
also  to  illustrate  to  all  mankind  their  loyalty 
to  all  things  at  home  which  they  wish  to  see 
established  everywhere  as  a  blessing  and  pro- 
tection to  the  peoples  who  have  never  known 
the  privilege  of  Hberty  and  self-government. 


52  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

I  can  never  accept  any  man  as  a  champion 
of  liberty,  either  for  ourselves  or  for  the  world, 
who  does  not  reverence  and  obey  the  laws  of 
our  own  beloved  land,  whose  laws  we  oiirselves 
have  made.  He  has  adopted  the  standards 
of  the  enemies  of  his  country,  whom  he  affects 
to  despise. 


IX 


THE    SECOND    CONSCRIPTION     PROCLAMATION 

(August  31,  igi8) 

Immediately  after  signing  the  Man-power 
Act  authorizing  the  registration  for  selective  draft 
of  all  men  in  the  United  States  between  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  forty-five,  inclusive,  who  had  not 
already  registered  or  who  were  not  in  the  military 
or  naval  service,  the  President  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, in  which  he  appointed  September  12,  igiS, 
as  the  day  for  this  enrolment.  After  citing  the 
provisions  of  the  new  law  and  stating  the  regula- 
tions for  the  registration,  the  President's  procla- 
mation continued  as  follows: 

Fifteen  months  ago  the  men  of  the  country 
from  twenty-one  to  thirty  years  of  age  regis- 
tered. Three  months  ago,  and  again  last 
month,  those  who  had  just  reached  the  age  of 
twenty-one  were  added.  It  now  remains  to 
include  all  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen 
and  forty-five. 

This  is  not  a  new  policy.  A  century  and  a 
quarter  ago  it  was  deliberately  ordained  by 
those  who  were  then  responsible  for  the  safety 


54  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

and  defense  of  the  nation  that  the  duty  of 
military  service  should  rest  upon  all  able- 
bodied  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and 
forty-five.  We  now  accept  and  fulfil  the  ob- 
ligation which  they  established,  an  obligation 
expressed  in  our  national  statutes  from  that 
time  until  now.  We  solemnly  purpose  a  de- 
cisive victory  of  arms,  and  deliberately  to 
devote  the  larger  part  of  the  military  man- 
power of  the  nation  to  the  accomplishment  of 
that  purpose. 

The  yoimger  men  have  from  the  first  been 
ready  to  go.  They  have  ftimished  voluntary 
enlistments  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  hum- 
bers.  Our  military  authorities  regard  them  as 
having  the  highest  combatant  qualities.  Their 
youthful  enthusiasm,  their  virile  eagerness, 
their  gallant  spirit  of  daring,  make  them  the 
admiration  of  all  who  see  them  in  action. 
They  covet  not  only  the  distinction  of  serving 
in  this  great  war,  but  also  the  inspiring  mem- 
ories which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them 
will  cherish  through  the  years  to  come,  of  a 
great  day  and  a  great  service  for  their  coimtry 
and  for  mankind. 

By  the  men  of  the  older  group  now  called 
on,  the  opportunity  now  opened  to  them  will 
be  accepted  with  the  calm  resolution  of  those 
who  realize  to  the  full  the  deep  and  solemn 
significance  of  what  they  do.  Having  made  a 
place  for  themselves  in  their  respective  com- 


THE  SECOND  CONSCRIPTION         55 

munities,  having  assumed  at  home  the  graver 
responsibilities  of  Hfe  in  many  spheres,  looking 
back  upon  honorable  records  in  civil  and  in- 
dustrial life,  they  will  realize  as  perhaps  no 
others  could  how  entirely  their  own  fortunes 
and  the  fortunes  of  all  whom  they  love  are  put 
at  stake  in  this  war  for  right,  and  will  know 
that  the  very  records  they  have  made  render 
this  new  duty  the  commanding  duty  of  their 
Hves.  They  know  how  siu-ely  this  is  the  na- 
tion's war,  how  imperatively  it  demands  the 
mobilization  and  massing  of  all  our  resources 
of  every  kind.  They  will  regard  this  call  as 
the  supreme  call  of  their  day,  and  will  answer 
it  accordingly. 

Only  a  portion  of  those  who  register  will  be 
called  upon  to  bear  arms.  Those  who  are  not 
physically  fit  will  be  excused,  those  exempted 
by  alien  allegiance,  those  who  should  not  be 
relieved  of  their  present  responsibilities,  above 
all,  those  who  cannot  be  spared  from  the  civil 
and  industrial  tasks  at  home  upon  which  the 
success  of  OUT  armies  depends  as  much  as  upon 
the  fighting  at  the  front.  But  all  must  be 
registered  in  order  that  the  selection  for 
military  service  may  be  made  intelligently 
and  with  full  information.  This  will  be  our 
final  demonstration  of  loyalty,  democracy,  and 
the  will  to  win,  our  solemn  notice  to  all  the 
world  that  we  stand  absolutely  together  in  a 
common  resolution  and  purpose.     It  is  the 


56  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

call  to  duty  to  which  every  true  man  in  the 
country  will  respond  with  pride  and  with  the 
consciousness  that  in  doing  so  he  plays  his 
part  in  vindication  of  a  great  cause  at  whose 
summons  every  true  heart  offers  its  supreme 
service. 


THE  ANSWER  TO   AUSTRIA'S   REQUEST   FOR   A 

CONFERENCE 

{September  i6,  1918) 

Robert  Lansings   Secretary  of  State  0}  the 
United  States  of  America,  upon  receiving  the 
official  text  of  the  Austrian  peace  notey  issued  the 
following  formal  statement: 

I  am  authorized  by  the  President  to  state 
that  the  following  will  be  the  reply  of  this 
Government  to  the  Austro-Himgarian  note 
proposing  an  unofficial  conference  of  bel- 
ligerents: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  feels  that  there 
is  only  one  reply  which  it  can  make  to  the  suggestion 
of  the  Imperial  Austro-Hungarian  Government.  It  has 
repeatedly  and  with  entire  candor  stated  the  terms 
upon  which  the  United  States  would  consider  peace, 
and  can  and  will  entertain  no  proposal  for  a  conference 
upon  a  matter  concerning  which  it  has  made  its  position 
and  purpose  so  plain. 


XI 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  THE  PRICE  OF  PEACE 

{September  27,  1918) 

On  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  cam- 
paign for  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan,  President 
Wilson  delivered  the  following  address  in  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  New  York: 

My  Fellow-citizens, — I  am  not  here  to 
promote  the  loan.  That  will  be  done — ably 
and  enthusiastically  done — by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  loyal  and  tireless  men  and 
women  who  have  imdertaken  to  present  it  to 
you  and  to  our  fellow-citizens  throughout 
the  country;  and  I  have  not  the  least  doubt 
of  their  complete  success;  for  I  know  their 
spirit  and  the  spirit  of  the  coimtry.  My 
confidence  is  confirmed,  too,  by  the  thought- 
ful and  experienced  co-operation  of  the  bankers 
here  and  everywhere,  who  are  lending  their 
invaluable  aid  and  guidance.  I  have  come, 
rather,  to  seek  an  opportunity  to  present  to 
you  some  thoughts  which  I  trust  will  serve 
to  give  you,  in  perhaps  fuller  measure  than 
before,  a  vivid  sense  of  the  great  issues  in- 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  59 

volved,  in  order  that  you  may  appreciate  and 
accept  with  added  enthusiasm  the  grave  signif- 
icance of  the  duty  of  supporting  the  Govern- 
ment by  your  men  and  your  means  to  the 
utmost  point  of  sacrifice  and  self-denial.  No 
man  or  woman  who  has  really  taken  in  what 
this  war  means  can  hesitate  to  give  to  the 
very  limit  of  what  he  or  she  has;  and  it  is 
my  mission  here  to-night  to  try  to  make  it  clear 
once  more  what  the  war  really  means.  You 
will  need  no  other  stimulation  or  reminder  of 
your  duty. 

WHAT  WE  MEAN  TO  ACCOMPLISH 

At  every  turn  of  the  war  we  gain  a  fresh 
consciousness  of  what  we  mean  to  accomplish 
by  it.  When  our  hope  and  expectation  are 
most  excited  we  think  more  definitely  than 
before  of  the  issues  that  hang  upon  it  and  of 
the  purposes  which  must  be  realized  by  means 
of  it.  For  it  has  positive  and  well-defined 
purposes  which  we  did  not  determine  and 
which  we  cannot  alter.  No  statesman  or 
assembly  can  alter  them.  They  have  arisen 
out  of  the  very  nature  and  circumstances  of 
the  war.  The  most  that  statesmen  or  assem- 
blies can  do  is  to  carry  them  out  or  be  false 
to  them.  They  were  perhaps  not  clear  at 
the  outset ;  but  they  are  clear  now.  The  war 
has  lasted  more  than  four  years  and  the  whole 
world  has  been  drawn  into  it.     The  common 


6o  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

will  of  mankind  has  been  substituted  for  the 
particular  purposes  of  individual  states.  In- 
dividual statesmen  may  have  started  the  con- 
fiict,  but  neither  they  nor  their  opponents 
can  stop  it  as  they  please.  It  has  become  a 
peoples'  war,  and  peoples  of  all  sorts  and 
races,  of  every  degree  of  power  and  variety  of 
fortune,  are  involved  in  its  sweeping  processes 
of  change  and  settlement.  We  came  into  it 
when  its  character  had  become  fully  defined 
and  it  was  plain  that  no  action  could  stand 
apart  or  be  indifferent  to  its  outcome.  Its 
challenge  drove  to  the  heart  of  everything 
we  cared  for  and  lived  for.  The  voice  of  the 
war  had  become  clear  and  gripped  our  hearts. 
Our  brothers  from  many  lands,  as  well  as  our 
own  murdered  dead  under  the  sea,  were  call- 
ing to  us,  and  we  responded,  fiercely  and  of 
course. 

THE   ISSUES   THAT   MUST   BE    SETTLED 

The  air  was  clear  about  us.  We  saw  things 
in  their  full,  convincing  proportions  as  they 
were;  and  we  have  seen  them  with  steady 
eyes  and  unchanging  comprehension  ever 
since.  We  accepted  the  issues  of  the  war  as 
facts,  not  as  any  group  of  men  either  here  or 
elsewhere  had  defined  them,  and  we  can 
accept  no  outcome  which  does  not  squarely 
meet  and  settle  them.  Those  issues  are 
these : 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  6i 

Shall  the  military  power  of  any  nation  or 
group  of  nations  be  suttered  to  determine  the 
fortunes  of  peoples  over  whom  they  have  no 
right  to  rule  except  the  right  of  force  ? 

Shall  ^trong^^jaatioa^  be  free  to  wrong 
weak  nations  and  make  them  subject  to  their 
purpose  and  interest?  -^.^ 

Shall  peoples  be  ruled  and  dominated,  even 
in  their  own  internal  affairs,  by  arbitrary  and 
irresponsible  force  or  by  their  own  will  and 
choice  ?  ^""^ 

Shall  there  be  a  common  standard  of  ,right 
and  privilege  for  all  peoples  and  nations, 
or  shall  the  strong  do  as  they  will  and  the 
weak  suffer  without  redress?  ^ 

Shall  the  assertion  of  right  be  haphazardj 
and  by  casual  alliance,  or  shall  there  be  a  / 
common  concert  to  oblige  the  observance  of  | 
common  rights?  --—4 

No  man,  no  group  of  men,  chose  these  to 
be  the  issues  of  the  struggle.  They  are  the 
issues  of  it;  and  they  must  be  settled — by 
no  arrangement  or  compromise  or  adjust- 
ment of  interests,  but  definitely  and  once  for 
all  and  with  a  full  and  unequivocal  acceptance 
of  the  principle  that  the  interest  of  the  weakest 
is  as  sacred  as  the  interest  of  the  strongest. 

This  is  what  we  mean  when  we  speak 
permanent  peace,  if  we  speak  sincerely 
telligently,  and  with  a  real  knowledge  and 
comprehension  of  the  matter  we  deal  with. 


gest. 

of  a  / 

,  in-  I 

and  1 


62  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

We  are  all  agreed  that  there  can  be  no 
peace  obtained  by  any  kind  of  bargain  or 
compromise  with  the  Governments  of  the  Cen- 
tral Empires,  because  we  have  dealt  with  them 
already  and  have  seen  them  deal  with  other 
Governments  that  were  parties  to  this  struggle, 
at  Brest-Litovsk  and  Bucharest.  They  have 
convinced  us  that  they  are  without  honor  and 
do  not  intend  justice.  They  observe  no  cove- 
nants, accept  no  principle  but  force  and  their 
own  interest.  We  cannot  "come  to  terms" 
with  them.  They  have  made  it  impossible. 
The  German  people  must  by  this  time  be  fully 
aware  that  we  cannot  accept  the  word  of  those 
who  forced  this  war  upon  us.  We  do  not 
think  the  same  thoughts  or  speak  the  same 
language  of  agreement. 

NO  PEACE  BY  COMPROMISE 

It  is  of  capital  importance  that  we  should 
also  be  explicitly  agreed  that  no  peace  shall 
be  obtained  by  any  kind  of  compromise  or 
abatement  of  the  principles  we  have  avowed 
as  the  principles  for  which  we  are  fighting. 
There  should  exist  no  doubt  about  that.  I 
am,  therefore,  going  to  take  the  liberty  of 
speaking  with  the  utmost  frankness  about 
the  practical  implications  that  are  involved 
in  it. 

If  it  be  indeed  and  in  truth  the  common 
object  of  the  Governments  associated  against 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  63 

Germany  and  of  the  nations  whom  they 
govern,  as  I  believe  it  to  be,  to  achieve  by 
the  coming  settlements  a  secure  and  lasting 
peace,  it  will  be  necessary  that  all  who  sit  down 
at  the  peace  table  shall  come  ready  and  will- 
ing to  pay  the  price,  the  only  price,  that  will 
procure  it;  and  ready  and  willing,  also,  to 
create  in  some  virile  fashion  the  only  in- 
strumentality by  which  it  can  be  made  certain 
that  the  agreements  of  the  peace  will  be 
honored  and  fulfilled. 

That  price  is  impartial  justice  in  every 
item  of  the  settlement,  no  matter  whose  in- 
terest is  crossed;  and  not  only  impartial 
justice,  but  also  the  satisfaction  of  the  several 
peoples  whose  fortunes  are  dealt  with.  That 
indispensable  instrumentality  is  a  League  of 
Nations,  formed  under  covenants  that  will 
be  efficacious.  Without  such  an  instrumen- 
tality, by  which  the  peace  of  the  world  can 
be  guaranteed,  peace  will  rest  in  part  upon 
the  word  of  outlaws,  and  only  upon  that  word. 
For  Germany  will  have  to  redeem  her  char- 
acter, not  by  what  happens  at  the  peace 
table,  but  by  what  follows. 

And,  as  I  see  it,  the  constitution  of  that 
League  of  Nations  and  the  clear  definition  of 
its  objects  must  be  a  part,  is  in  a  sense  the 
most  essential  part,  of  the  peace  settlement 
itself.  It  cannot  be  formed  now.  If  formed 
now,  it  would  be  merely  a  new  alliance  con- 


64  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

fined  to  the  nations  associated  against  a  com- 
mon enemy.  It  is  not  likely  that  it  could  be 
formed  after  the  settlement.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  guarantee  the  peace;  and  the  peace 
cannot  be  guaranteed  as  an  afterthought. 
The  reason,  to  speak  in  plain  terms  again, 
why  it  must  be  guaranteed  is  that  there  will 
be  parties  to  the  peace  whose  promises  have 
proved  untrustworthy,  and  means  must  be 
found  in  connection  with  the  peace  settlement 
itself  to  remove  that  source  of  insecurity. 
It  would  be  folly  to  leave  the  guarantee  to 
the  subsequent  voluntary  action  of  the  Gov- 
ernments we  have  seen  destroy  Russia  and 
deceive  Rumania. 

JUSTICE   THAT   PLAYS   NO   FAVORITES 

But  these  general  terms  do  not  disclose  the 
whole  matter.  Some  details  are  needed  to 
make  them  sound  less  like  a  thesis  and  more 
Uke  a  practical  program.  These,  then,  are 
some  of  the  particulars,  and  I  state  them  with 
the  greater  confidence  because  I  can  state 
them  authoritatively  as  representing  this 
Government's  interpretation  of  its  own  duty 
with  regard  to  peace : 

First,  the  impartial  justice  meted  out  must 
involve  no  discrimination  between  those  to 
whom  we  wish  to  be  just  and  those  to  whom 
we  do  not  wish  to  be  just.  It  must  be  a 
justice  that  plays  no  favorites  and  knows  no 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  65 

standard  but  the  equal  rights  of  the  several 
peoples  concerned; 

Second,  no  special  or  separate  interest  of  any 
single  nation  or  any  group  of  nations  can  be 
made  the  basis  of  any  part  of  the  settlement 
which  is  not  consistent  with  the  common 
interest  of  all; 

Third,  there  can  be  no  leagues  or  alliances 
or  special  covenants  and  understandings 
within  the  general  and  common  family  of  the 
League  of  Nations ; 

Fourth,  and  more  specifically,  there  can  be 
no  special,  selfish  economic  combinations 
within  the  league  and  no  employment  of  any 
form  of  economic  boycott  or  exclusion  except 
as  the  power  of  economic  penalty  by  exclusion 
from  the  markets  of  the  world  may  be  vested 
in  the  League  of  Nations  itself  as  a  means  of 
discipline  and  control; 

Fifth,  all  international  agreements  and 
treaties  of  every  kind  must  be  made  known 
in  their  entirety  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 

ALLIANCES   AND   RIVALRIES 

Special  alliances  and  economic  rivalries  and 
hostilities  have  been  the  prolific  source  in  the 
modern  world  of  the  plans  and  passions  that 
produce  war.  It  would  be  an  insincere  as 
well  as  an  insecure  peace  that  did  not  exclude 
them  in  definite  and  binding  terms. 

The   confidence   with   which   I   venture  to 


66  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

speak  for  our  people  in  these  matters  does  not 
spring  from  our  traditions  merely,  and  the 
well-known  principles  of  international  action 
which  we  have  always  professed  and  followed. 
In  the  same  sentence  in  which  I  say  that  the 
United  States  will  enter  into  no  special  arrange- 
ments or  understandings  with  particular  na- 
tions let  me  say  also  that  the  United  States  is 
prepared  to  assume  its  full  share  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  maintenance  of  the  common 
covenants  and  understandings  upon  which 
peace  must  henceforth  rest.  We  still  read  Wash- 
ington's immortal  warning  against  **  entangling 
alliances"  with  full  comprehension  and  an 
answering  purpose.  But  only  special  and 
limited  alliances  entangle;  and  we  recognize 
and  accept  the  duty  of  a  new  day  in  which  we 
are  permitted  to  hope  for  a  general  alliance 
which  will  avoid  entanglements  and  clear  the 
air  of  the  world  for  common  understandings 
and  the  maintenance  of  common  rights. 

THE    NEED   FOR   PLAIN    SPEAKING 

I  have  made  this  analysis  of  the  inter- 
national situation  which  the  war  has  created, 
not,  of  course,  because  I  doubted  whether  the 
leaders  of  the  great  nations  and  peoples  with 
whom  we  are  associated  were  of  the  same  mind 
and  entertained  a  like  purpose,  but  because 
the  air  every  now  and  again  gets  darkened  by 
mists    and    groundless    doubtings    and    mis- 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  e-j 

chievous  perversions  of  counsel,  and  it  is  nec- 
essary once  and  again  to  sweep  all  the  irre- 
sponsible talk  about  peace  intrigues  and  weak- 
ening morale  and  doubtful  purpose  on  the  part 
of  those  in  authority  utterly,  and  if  need  be 
unceremoniously,  aside  and  say  things  in  the 
plainest  words  that  can  be  found,  even  when 
it  is  only  to  say  over  again  what  has  been  said 
before,  quite  as  plainly,  if  in  less  unvarnished 
terms. 

As  I  have  said,  neither  I  nor  any  other  man 
in  governmental  authority  created  or  gave 
form  to  the  issues  of  this  war.  I  have  simply 
responded  to  them  with  such  vision  as  I  could 
command.  But  I  have  responded  gladly  and 
with  a  resolution  that  has  grown  warmer  and 
more  confident  as  the  issues  have  grown  clearer 
and  clearer.  It  is  now  plain  that  they  are 
issues  which  no  man  can  pervert  unless  it  be 
wilfully.  I  am  bound  to  fight  for  them,  and 
happy  to  fight  for  them  as  time  and  circum- 
stance have  revealed  them  to  me  as  to  all  the 
world.  Our  enthusiasm  for  them  grows  more 
and  more  irresistible  as  they  stand  out  in  more 
and  more  vivid  and  unmistakable  outline. 

And  the  forces  that  fight  for  them  draw  into 
closer  and  closer  array,  organize  their  millions 
into  more  and  more  unconquerable  might,  as 
they  become  more  and  more  distinct  to  the 
thought  and  purpose  of  the  peoples  engaged. 
It  is  the  peculiarity  of  this  great  war  that  while 


68  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

statesmen  have  seemed  to  cast  about  for 
definitions  of  their  purpose,  and  have  some- 
times seemed  to  shift  their  ground  and  their 
point  of  view,  the  thought  of  the  mass  of  men, 
whom  statesmen  are  supposed  to  instruct  and 
lead,  has  grown  more  and  more  vmclouded, 
more  and  more  certain  of  what  it  is  that  they 
are  fighting  for.  National  piu-poses  have  fall- 
en more  and  more  into  the  background  and 
the  common  purpose  of  enlightened  mankind 
has  taken  their  place.  The  counsels  of  plain 
men  have  become  on  all  hands  more  simple 
and  straightforward  and  more  unified  than  the 
counsels  of  sophisticated  men  of  affairs,  who 
still  retain  the  impression  that  they  are  playing 
a  game  of  power  and  playing  for  high  stakes. 
That  is  why  I  have  said  that  this  is  a  peoples* 
war,  not  a  statesmen's.  Statesmen  must  fol- 
low the  clarified  common  thought  or  be  broken. 

WHAT  IS   THE   WORLD   SEEKING? 

I  take  that  to  be  the  significance  of  the  fact 
that  assemblies  and  associations  of  many 
kinds  made  up  of  plain  workaday  people  have 
demanded,  almost  every  time  they  came  to- 
gether, and  are  still  demanding,  that  the  lead- 
ers of  their  Governments  declare  to  them 
plainly  what  it  is,  exactly  what  it  is,  that  they 
are  seeking  in  this  war,  and  what  they  think  the 
items  of  the  final  settlement  should  be.  They 
are  not  yet  satisfied  with  what  they  have  been 


IMPARTIAL  JUSTICE  69 

told.  They  still  seem  to  fear  that  they  are 
getting  what  they  ask  for  only  in  statesmen's 
terms — only  in  the  terms  of  territorial  arrange- 
ments and  divisions  of  power,  and  not  in  terms 
of  broad-visioned  justice  and  mercy  and  peace 
and  the  satisfaction  of  those  deep-seated  long- 
ings of  oppressed  and  distracted  men  and 
women  and  enslaved  peoples  that  seem  to  them 
the  only  things  worth  fighting  a  war  for  that 
engulfs  the  world.  Perhaps  statesmen  have 
not  always  recognized  this  changed  aspect  of 
the  whole  world  of  policy  and  action.  Per- 
haps they  have  not  always  spoken  in  direct 
reply  to  the  questions  asked  because  they  did 
not  know  how  searching  those  questions  were 
and  what  sort  of  answers  they  demanded. 

AGAIN  ATTEMPTING   AN   ANSWER 

But  I,  for  one,  am  glad  to  attempt  the 
answer  again  and  again,  in  the  hope  that  I 
may  make  it  clearer  and  clearer  that  my  one 
thought  is  to  satisfy  those  who  struggle  in  the 
ranks  and  are,  perhaps  above  all  others,  en- 
titled to  a  reply  whose  meaning  no  one  can 
have  any  excuse  for  misunderstanding,  if  he 
understands  the  language  in  which  it  is  spoken 
or  can  get  some  one  to  translate  it  correctly 
into  his  own.  And  I  believe  that  the  leaders 
of  the  Governments  with  which  we  are  asso- 
ciated will  speak,  as  they  have  occasion,  as 
plainly  as  I  have  tried  to  speak.     I  hope  that 


70  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

they  will  feel  free  to  say  whether  they  think 
that  I  am  in  any  degree  mistaken  in  my  inter- 
pretation of  the  issues  involved  or  in  my  pur- 
pose with  regard  to  the  means  by  which  a 
satisfactory  settlement  of  those  issues  may  be 
obtained.  Unity  of  purpose  and  of  counsel 
is  as  imperatively  necessary  in  this  war  as 
was  unity  of  command  in  the  battle-field; 
and  with  perfect  unity  of  purpose  and  counsel 
will  come  assurance  of  complete  victory.  It 
can  be  had  in  no  other  way.  "Peace  drives" 
can  be  effectively  neutralized  and  silenced  only 
by  showing  that  every  victory  of  the  nations 
associated  against  Germany  brings  the  nations 
nearer  the  sort  of  peace  which  will  bring 
security  and  reassurance  to  all  peoples  and 
make  the  recurrence  of  another  such  struggle 
of  pitiless  force  and  bloodshed  forever  impos- 
sible, and  that  nothing  else  can.  Germany  is 
constantly^  intimating  the  ''terms"  she  will 
accept;  and  always  finds  that  the  world  does 
not  want  terms.  It  wishes  the  final  triumph 
of  justice  and  fair  dealing. 


XII 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  SENATE  ON  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 
{September  jo,  1918) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate, — The  un- 
usual circumstances  of  a  world  war  in  which 
we  stand  and  are  judge  in  the  view  not  only 
of  our  own  people  and  our  own  consciences, 
but  also  in  the  view  of  all  nations  and  people, 
will,  I  hope,  justify  in  your  thought,  as  it  does 
in  mine,  the  message  I  have  come  to  bring  you. 

I  regard  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate  in 
the  constitutional  amendment  proposing  the 
extension  of  the  suffrage  to  women  as  vitally 
essential  to  the  successful  prosecution  of  the 
great  war  of  humanity  in  which  we  are  en- 
gaged. I  have  come  to  urge  upon  you  the 
considerations  which  have  led  me  to  that 
conclusion.  It  is  not  only  my  privilege,  it 
is  also  my  duty,  to  apprise  you  of  every 
circumstance  and  element  involved  in  this 
momentous  struggle  which  seems  to  me  to 
affect  its  very  processes  and  its  outcome. 
It  is  my  duty  to  win  the  war  and  to  ask  you 
to  remove  every  obstacle  that  stands  in  the 

way  of  winning  it. 
6 


72  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

I  had  assumed  that  the  Senate  would 
concur  in  the  amendment  because  no  dis- 
putable principle  is  involved,  but  only  a 
question  of  the  method  by  which  the  suffrage 
is  to  be  extended  to  women.  There  is  and  can 
be  no  party  issue  involved  in  it.  Both  of 
our  great  national  parties  are  pledged,  ex- 
plicitly pledged,  to  equality  of  suffrage  for  the 
women  of  the  country.  Neither  party,  there- 
fore, it  seems  to  me,  can  justify  hesitation  as 
to  the  method  of  obtaining  it,  can  rightfully 
hesitate  to  substitute  Federal  initiative  for 
state  initiative,  if  the  early  adoption  of  this 
measure  is  necessary  to  the  successful  prose- 
cution of  the  war,  and  if  the  method  of  state 
action  proposed  in  the  party  platforms  of 
191 6  is  impracticable,  within  any  reasonable 
length  of  time,  if  practical  at  all.  And  its 
adoption  is,  in  my  judgment,  clearly  nec- 
essary to  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war 
and  the  successful  realization  of  the  objects 
for  which  the  war  is  being  fought. 

That  judgment,  I  take  the  liberty  of  urging 
upon  you  with  solemn  earnestness,  for  rea- 
sons which  I  shall  state  very  frankly,  and  which 
I  hope  will  seem  as  conclusive  to  you  as  they 
seem  to  me. 

THE  REASONS  FOR  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE 

This  is  a  people's  war,  and  the  people's 
thinking  constitutes  its  atmosphere  and  morale, 


ON  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  73 

not  the  predilections  of  the  drawing-room  or 
the  political  considerations  of  the  caucus. 
If  we  be  indeed  Democrats  and  wish  to  lead 
the  world  to  democracy,  we  can  ask  other 
peoples  to  accept  in  proof  of  our  sincerity 
and  our  abiHty  to  lead  them  whither  they 
wish  to  be  led  nothing  less  persuasive  and 
convincing  than  oiu*  actions.  Our  professions 
will  not  suffice.  Verification  must  be  forth- 
coming when  verification  is  asked  for.  And 
in  this  case  verification  is  asked  for — asked 
for  in  this  particular  matter.  You  ask  by 
whom?  Not  through  diplomatic  channels, 
not  by  foreign  ministers,  not  by  the  intima- 
tions of  parliaments.  It  is  asked  for  by  the 
anxious,  expectant,  suffering  peoples  with 
whom  we  are  dealing,  and  who  are  willing 
to  put  their  destinies  in  some  measure  in  our 
hands,  if  they  are  sure  that  we  wish  the  same 
things  that  they  do. 

I  do  not  speak  my  conjecture.  It  is  not 
alone  the  voices  of  statesmen  and  of  news- 
papers that  reach  me,  and  the  voices  of  foolish 
and  intemperate  agitators  do  not  reach  me 
at  all.  Through  many,  many  channels  I 
have  been  made  aware  what  the  plain,  strug- 
gling, workaday  folk  are  thinking,  upon  whom 
the  chief  terror  and  suffering  of  this  tragic  war 
falls.  They  are  looking  to  the  great,  powerful, 
famous  democracy  of  the  West  to  lead  them  to 
the  new  day  for  which  they  have  so  long  waited ; 


^74  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

and  they  think,  in  their  logical  simplicity,  that 
democracy  means  that  women  shall  play  their 
part  in  affairs  alongside  men  and  apon  an 
equal  footing  with  them.  If  we  reject  meas- 
ures like  these  in  ignorant  defiance  of  what  a 
new  age  has  brought  forth,  of  what  they  have 
seen  but  we  have  not,  they  will  cease  to  believe 
in  us,  they  will  cease  to  follow  or  to  trust  us. 
They  have  seen  their  own  Governments 
accept  this  interpretation  of  democracy — 
seen  old  Governments  like  that  of  Great 
Britain,  which  did  not  profess  to  be  democratic, 
promise  readily  and  as  of  course  this  justice 
to  women,  though  they  had  before  refused  it, 
the  strange  revelations  of  this  war  having 
made  many  things  new  and  plain,  to  Gov- 
ernments as  well  as  to  peoples. 

SHALL  WE  LEARN  THE  LESSON? 

Are  we  alone  to  refuse  to  learn  the  lesson? 
Are  we  alone  to  ask  and  take  the  utmost 
that  our  women  can  give — service  and  sacri- 
fice of  every  kind — and  still  say  we  do  not  see 
what  title  that  gives  them  to  stand  by  our 
sides  in  the  guidance  of  the  affairs  of  their 
nation  and  ours?  We  have  made  partners  of 
the  women  in  this  war.  Shall  we  admit 
them  only  to  a  partnership  of  suffering  and 
sacrifice  and  toil,  and  not  to  a  partnership  of 
privilege  and  right  ?  This  war  could  not  have 
been  fought,  either  by  the  other  nations  en- 


ON  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  75 

gaged  or  by  America,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  services  of  the  women — service  rendered 
in  every  sphere — not  merely  in  the  fields  of 
efforts  in  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
see  them  work,  but  wherever  men  have  worked 
and  upon  the  very  skirts  and  edges  of  the  bat- 
tle itself.  We  shall  not  only  be  distrusted, 
but  shall  deserve  to  be  distrusted,  if  we  do 
not  enfranchise  them  with  the  fullest  pos- 
sible enfranchisement,  as  it  is  now  certain 
that  the  other  great  free  nations  will  enfran- 
chise them. 

WE  CANNOT  STAND  ALONE 

We  cannot  isolate  our  thoughts  and  action 
in  a  matter  from  the  thought  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.  We  must  either  conform  or  de- 
Hberately  reject  what  they  propose  and  resign 
the  leadership  of  liberal  minds  to  others. 

The  women  of  America  are  too  noble  and 
too  intelligent  and  too  devoted  to  be  slackers, 
whether  you  give  or  withhold  this  thing  that 
is  mere  justice,  but  I  know  the  magic  it  will 
work  in  their  thoughts  and  spirits  if  you  give 
it  to  them.  I  propose  it  as  I  would  propose 
to  admit  soldiers  to  the  suffrage,  the  men 
fighting  in  the  field  for  our  Hberties,  and  the 
liberties  of  the  world,  were  they  excluded. 
The  tasks  of  the  women  lie  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  war,  and  I  know  how  much  stronger 
that  heart  will  beat  if  you  do  this  just  thing 


^e  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

and  show  our  women  that  you  trust  them  as 
much  as  you  in  fact  and  of  necessity  depend 
upon  them. 

Have  I  said  that  the- passage  of  this  amend- 
ment is  a  vitally  necessary  war  meastue,  and 
do  you  need  fiu-ther  proof?  Do  you  stand  in 
need  of  the  trust  of  other  peoples  and  of  the 
trust  of  our  own  women?  Is  that  trust  an 
asset,  or  is  it  not?  I  tell  you  plainly,  as  the 
commander-in-chief  of  oiu:  armies  and  of  the 
gallant  men  in  oiu*  fleets,  as  the  present  spokes- 
man of  this  people  in  our  dealings  with  the 
men  and  women  throughout  the  world  who 
are  now  oiu*  partners,  as  the  responsible  head 
of  a  great  Government  which  stands  and  is 
questioned  day  by  day  as  to  its  purposes,  its 
principles,  its  hopes,  whether  they  be  service- 
able to  men  ever3rwhere,  or  only  to  itself, 
and  who  must  himself  answer  these  question- 
ings, or  be  shamed,  as  the  guide  and  director 
of  forces  caught  in  the  grip  of  war  and  by  the 
same  token  in  need  of  every  material  and 
spiritual  resotuce  this  great  nation  possesses — 
I  tell  you  plainly  that  this  measiu-e  which  I 
urge  upon  you  is  vital  to  the  winning  of  the 
war  and  to  the  energies  alike  of  preparation 
and  of  battle. 

WOMEN  IN  OUR  COUNSELS 

And  not  to  the  winning  of  the  war  only. 
It  is  vital  to  the  right  solution  of  the  great 


ON  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  ']^ 

problems  which  we  must  settle,  and  settle 
immediately,  when  the  war  is  over.  We  shall 
need  them  in  our  vision  of  affairs,  as  we  have 
never  needed  them  before,  the  sympathy 
and  insight  and  clear  moral  instinct  of  the 
women  of  the  world.  The  problems  of  that 
time  will  strike  to  the  roots  of  many  things 
that  we  have  not  hitherto  questioned,  and  I 
for  one  believe  that  our  safety  in  those  ques- 
tioning days,  as  well  as  our  comprehension  of 
matters  that  touch  society  to  the  quick, 
will  depend  upon  the  direct  and  authorita- 
tive participation  of  women  in  our  counsels. 
We  shall  need  their  moral  sense  to  preserve 
what  is  right  and  fine  and  worthy  in  our  sys- 
tem of  life,  as  well  as  to  discover  just  what  it 
is  that  ought  to  be  purified  and  reformed. 
Without  their  counselings,  we  shall  be  only 
half  wise. 

That  is  my  case.  This  is  my  appeal. 
Many  may  deny  its  validity,  if  they  choose, 
but  no  one  can  brush  aside  or  answer  the  ar- 
guments upon  which  it  is  based.  The  exec- 
utive tasks  of  this  war  rest  upon  me.  I  ask 
that  you  lighten  them  and  place  in  my  hands 
instruments,  spiritual  instruments,  which  I 
do  not  now  possess,  which  I  sorely  need,  and 
which  I  have  daily  to  apologize  for  not  being 
able  to  employ. 


XIII 

A  QUESTION  FOR  THE  GERMAN  CHANCELLOR 
{October  8,  1918) 

Acknowledging  tne  receipt  of  a  communi- 
cation from  the  German  Government  saying  that 
it  was  ready  to  accept  President  Wilson's  terms 
and  asking  for  an  armistice,  Robert  Lansing, 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
handed  to  Mr.  Frederick  Oederlin,  Charge 
d' Affaires  of  Switzerland,  ad  interim  in  charge 
of  German  affairs  in  the  United  States,  the  fol- 
lowing note: 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,  October  8,  igi8. 

Sir, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge, 
on  behalf  of  the  President,  your  note  of  Oc- 
tober 6th,  inclosing  a  communication  from  the 
German  Government  to  the  President,  and  I 
am  instructed  by  the  President  to  request 
you  to  make  the  following  communication  to 
the  Imperial  German  Chancellor: 

''Before  making  reply  to  the  request  of  the 
Imperial  German  Government,  and  in  order 
that  that  reply  shall  be  as  candid  and  straight- 
forward as  the  momentous  interests  involved 


A  QUESTION  79 

require,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
deems  it  necessary  to  assure  himself  of  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  note  of  the  Imperial 
Chancellor.  Does  the  Imperial  Chancellor 
mean  that  the  Imperial  German  Government 
accepts  the  terms  laid  down  by  the  President 
in  his  address  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  on  the  8  th  of  January  last  and  in  sub- 
sequent addresses,  and  that  its  object  in  enter- 
ing into  discussions  would  be  only  to  agree 
upon  the  practical  details  of  their  application  ? 

"The  President  feels  bound  to  say  with  re- 
gard to  the  suggestion  of  an  armistice  that  he 
would  not  feel  at  liberty  to  propose  a  cessation 
of  arms  to  the  Governments  with  which  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  is  associated 
against  the  Central  Powers  so  long  as  the  armies 
of  those  Powers  are  upon  their  soil.  The  good 
faith  of  any  discussion  would  manifestly  de- 
pend upon  the  consent  of  the  Central  Powers 
immediately  to  withdraw  their  forces  every- 
where from  invaded  territory. 

*  *  The  President  also  feels  that  he  is  justified 
in  asking  whether  the  Imperial  Chancellor 
is  speaking  merely  for  the  constituted  authori- 
ties of  the  Empire  who  have  so  far  conducted 
the  war.  He  deems  the  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions vital  from  every  point  of  view." 

Accept,  sir,  the  renewed  assurances  of  my 
high  consideration. 

Robert  Lansing. 


XIV 

THE  REPLY  TO  GERMANY 
(October  14,  1918) 

From  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Frederick 
Oederlin,  Charge  d' A f  aires  of  Switzerland: 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,  October  14,  igi8. 

Sir, — In  reply  to  the  communication  of 
the  German  Government,  dated  the  12th 
inst.,  which  you  handed  me  to-day,  I  have  the 
honor  to  request  you  to  transmit  the  fol- 
lowing answer: 

The  unqualified  acceptance  by  the  present 
German  Government  and  by  a  large  majority 
of  the  German  Reichstag  of  the  terms  laid 
down  by  the  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America  in  his  address  to  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  on  the  8th  of  January, 
191 8,  and  in  his  subsequent  addresses  justi- 
fies the  President  in  making  a  frank  and  direct 
statememt  of  his  decision  with  regard  to  the 
communications  of  the  German  Government 
of  the  8th  and  12th  of  October,  191 8. 


THE  REPLY  TO  GERMANY  8i 

It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  the 
process  of  evacuation  and  the  conditions  of 
an  armistice  are  matters  which  must  be  left 
to  the  judgment  and  advice  of  the  military- 
advisers  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Allied  Governments,  and  the 
President  feels  it  his  duty  to  say  that  no  ar- 
rangement can  be  accepted  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  which  does  not  pro- 
vide absolutely  satisfactory  safeguards  and 
guarantees  of  the  maintenance  of  the  present 
military  supremacy  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  Allies  in  the  field.  He  feels 
confident  that  he  can  safely  assume  that  this 
will  also  be  the  judgment  and  decision  of  the 
Allied  Governments. 

The  President  feels  that  it  is  also  his  duty 
to  add  that  neither  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  nor,  he  is  quite  sure,  the  Gov- 
ernments with  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  is  associated  as  a  belligerent 
will  consent  to  consider  an  armistice  so  long 
as  the  armed  forces  of  Germany  continue  the 
illegal  and  inhumane  practices  which  they  per- 
sist in. 

At  the  very  time  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment approaches  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  with  proposals  of  peace,  its 
submarines  are  engaged  in  sinking  passenger 
ships  at  sea,  and  not  the  ships  alone,  but  the 
very   boats   in   which   their  passengers   and 


82  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

crews  seek  to  make  their  way  to  safety; 
and  in  their  present  enforced  withdrawal 
from  Flanders  and  France  the  German  armies 
are  pursuing  a  course  of  wanton  destruction 
which  has  always  been  regarded  as  in  direct 
violation  of  the  rules  and  practices  of  civilized 
warfare.  Cities  and  villages,  if  not  destroyed, 
are  being  stripped  of  all  they  contain  not  only, 
but  often  of  their  very  inhabitants.  The 
nations  associated  against  Germany  cannot 
be  expected  to  agree  to  a  cessation  of  arms 
while  acts  of  inhumanity,  spoliation,  and  deso- 
lation are  being  continued  which  they  justly 
look  upon  with  horror  and  with  burning  hearts. 

It  is  necessary  also,  in  order  that  there  may 
be  no  possibility  of  misunderstanding,  that 
the  President  should  very  solemnly  call  the 
attention  of  the  Government  of  Germany  to 
the  language  and  plain  intent  of  one  of  the 
terms  of  peace  which  the  German  Government 
has  now  accepted.  It  is  contained  in  the 
address  of  the  President  delivered  at  Mount 
Vernon  on  the  Fourth  of  July  last.  It  is  as 
follows : 

"The  destruction  of  every  arbitrary  power 
anywhere  that  can  separately,  secretly,  and  of 
its  single  choice  distiu-b  the  peace  of  the  world ; 
or,  if  it  cannot  be  presently  destroyed,  at 
least  its  reduction  to  virtual  impotency.'* 

The  power  which  has  hitherto  controlled 
the  German  nation  is  of  the  sort  here  described. 


THE  REPLY  TO  GERMANY  83 

It  is  within  the  choice  of  the  German  na- 
tion to  alter  it.  The  President's  words  just 
quoted  natirrally  constitute  a  condition  prec- 
edent to  peace,  if  peace  is  to  come  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  German  people  themselves.  The 
President  feels  bound  to  say  that  the  whole 
process  of  peace  will,  in  his  judgment,  depend 
upon  the  definiteness  and  the  satisfactory 
character  of  the  guarantees  which  can  be 
given  in  this  fundamental  matter.  It  is  in- 
dispensable that  the  Governments  associated 
against  Germany  should  know  beyond  a 
peradventure  with  whom  they  are  dealing. 

The  President  will  make  a  separate  reply 
to  the  Royal  and  Imperial  Government  of 
Austria-Hungary. 

Accept,  sir,  the  renewed  assurances  of  my 
high  consideration. 

Robert  Lansing. 


XV 

THE  REPLY  TO  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 
{October  ig,  1918) 

From  the  Secretary  oj  State  to  the  Minister 
of  Sweden: 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,  October  ip,  igi8. 

Sir, — ^I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  note  of  the  7th  instant  in 
which  you  transmit  a  communication  of  the 
Imperial  and  Royal  Government  ol'  Austria- 
Hungary  to  the  President.  I  am  now  mstructed 
by  the  President  to  request  you  to  be  good 
enough  through  your  Government  tc  convey 
to  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government  the 
following  reply: 

*'The  President  deems  it  his  duty  to  say  to 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  that  he 
cannot  entertain  the  present  suggestions  of 
that  Government  because  of  certain  events  of 
utmost  importance,  which,  occurring  since  the 
delivery  of  his  address  of  the  8th  of  January 
last,  have  necessarily  altered  the  attitude  and 
responsibility  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States.     Among  the  fourteen  terms  of  peace 


THE  REPLY  TO  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  85 

which  the  President  formulated  at  that  time, 
occurred  the  following: 

*''X. — ^The  peoples  of  Austria  -  Hungary, 
whose  place  among  the  nations  we  wish  to  see 
safeguarded  and  assured,  should  be  accorded 
the  freest  opportunity  of  autonomous  devel- 
opment.* 

**  Since  that  sentence  was  written  and  ut- 
tered to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  has  recog- 
nized that  a  state  of  belligerency  exists  between 
the  Czechoslovaks  and  the  German  and  Austro- 
Himgarian  Empires  and  that  the  Czechoslovak 
National  Council  is  a  de  facto  belligerent 
Government  clothed  with  proper  authority  to 
direct  the  military  and  political  affairs  of  the 
Czechoslovaks.  It  has  also  recognized  in  the 
fullest  manner  the  justice  of  the  nationalistic 
aspirations  of  the  Jugo-slavs  for  freedom. 

''The  President  is,  therefore,  no  longer  at 
liberty  to  accept  the  mere  'autonomy'  of 
these  peoples  as  a  basis  of  peace,  but  is 
obliged  to  insist  that  they,  and  not  he,  shall 
be  the  judges  of  what  action  on  the  part  of 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  will  satisfy 
their  aspirations  and  their  conceptions  of  their 
rights  and  destiny  as  members  of  the  family 
of  nations." 

Accept,  sir,  the  renewed  assiu-ances  of  my 
highest  consideration. 

Robert  Lansing. 


XVI 

AUTOCRACY  MUST  GO 
{October  23,  191 8) 

From  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Frederick 
Oederlin,  Charge  d' Affaires  of  Switzerland: 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,  October  2j,  igi8. 

Sir, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  note  of  the  2 2d  transmitting  a 
communication  under  the  date  of  the  20th 
from  the  German  Government  and  to  advise 
you  that  the  President  has  instructed  me  to 
reply  thereto  as  follows: 

*' Having  received  the  solemn  and  explicit 
assurance  of  the  German  Government  that  it 
unreservedly  accepts  the  terms  of  peace  laid 
down  in  his  address  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  on  the  8th  of  January,  191 8, 
and  the  principles  of  settlement  enunciated 
in  his  subsequent  addresses,  particularly  the 
address  of  the  27th  of  September,  and  that  it 
desires  to  discuss  the  details  of  their  applica- 
tion, and  that  this  wish  and  purpose  emanate, 


AUTOCRACY  MUST  GO  87 

not  from  those  who  have  hitherto  dictated 
German  poHcy  and  conducted  the  present 
war  on  Germany's  behalf,  but  from  Ministers 
who  speak  for  the  majority  of  the  Reichstag 
and  for  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
German  people;  and  having  received  also  the 
explicit  promise  of  the  present  German  Gov- 
ernment that  the  humane  rules  of  civilized 
warfare  will  be  observed  both  on  land  and 
sea  by  the  German  armed  forces,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  feels  that  he  cannot  de- 
cline to  take  up  with  the  Governments  with 
which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is 
associated  the  question  of  an  armistice. 

*'He  deems  it  his  duty  to  say  again,  however, 
that  the  only  armistice  he  would  feel  justi- 
fied in  submitting  for  consideration  would  be 
one  which  should  leave  the  United  States 
and  the  Powers  associated  with  her  in  a  posi- 
tion to  enforce  any  arrangements  that  may  be 
entered  into  and  to  make  a  renewal  of  hostili- 
ties on  the  part  of  Germany  impossible. 

"The  President  has,  therefore,  transmitted 
his  correspondence  with  the  present  German 
authorities  to  the  Governments  with  which 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  associ- 
ated as  a  belligerent,  with  the  suggestion  that, 
if  those  Governments  are  disposed  to  effect 
peace  upon  the  terms  and  principles  indicated, 
their  military  advisers  and  the  military  ad- 
visers of  the  United  States  be  asked  to  submit 
7 


88  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

to  the  Governments  associated  against  Ger- 
many the  necessary  terms  of  such  an  armistice 
as  will  ftilly  protect  the  interests  of  the  peoples 
involved  and  insure  to  the  associated  Govern- 
ments the  unrestricted  power  to  safeguard 
and  enforce  the  details  of  the  peace  to  which 
the  German  Government  has  agreed,  provided 
they  deem  such  an  armistice  possible  from 
the  miHtary  point  of  view.  Should  such  terms 
of  armistice  be  suggested,  their  acceptance  by 
Germany  will  afford  the  best  concrete  evidence 
of  her  unequivocal  acceptance  of  the  terms  and 
principles  of  peace  from  which  the  whole  action 
proceeds. 

' '  The  President  would  deem  himself  lacking 
in  candor  did  he  not  point  out  in  the  frankest 
possible  terms  the  reason  why  extraordinary 
safeguards  must  be  demanded.  Significant 
and  important  as  the  constitutional  changes 
seem  to  be  which  are  spoken  of  by  the  Ger- 
man Foreign  Secretary  in  his  note  of  the  20th 
of  October,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  a  Government  responsible  to  the 
German  people  has  yet  been  fully  worked  out 
or  that  any  guarantees  either  exist  or  are  in 
contemplation  that  the  alterations  of  prin- 
ciple and  of  practice  now  partially  agreed 
upon  will  be  permanent.  Moreover,  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  heart  of  the  present  dif- 
ficulty has  been  reached.  It  may  be  that 
future  wars  have  been  brought  under  the  con- 


AUTOCRACY  MUST  GO  89 

trol  of  tlie  German  people,  but  the  present 
war  has  not  been;  and  it  is  with  the  present 
war  that  we  are  deahng.  It  is  evident  that 
the  German  people  have  no  means  of  com- 
manding the  acquiescence  of  the  military  au- 
thorities of  the  Empire  in  the  popular  will; 
that  the  power  of  the  King  of  Prussia  to  con- 
trol the  policy  of  the  Empire  is  unimpaired; 
that  the  determining  initiative  still  remains 
with  those  who  have  hitherto  been  the  masters 
of  Germany.  Feeling  that  the  whole  peace  of 
the  world  depends  now  on  plain  speaking  and 
straightforward  action,  the  President  deems 
it  his  duty  to  say,  without  any  attempt  to 
soften  what  may  seem  harsh  words,  that 
the  nations  of  the  world  do  not  and  cannot 
trust  the  word  of  those  who  have  hitherto 
been  the  masters  of  German  policy,  and  to 
point  out  once  more  that  in  concluding  peace 
and  attempting  to  undo  the  infinite  injiuies 
and  injustices  of  this  war  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  cannot  deal  with  any  but 
veritable  representatives  of  the  German  peo- 
ple who  have  been  assured  of  a  genuine 
constitutional  standing  as  the  real  rtilers  of 
Germany. 

**If  it  must  deal  with  the  military  masters 
and  the  monarchical  autocrats  of  Germany 
now,  or  if  it  is  likely  to  have  to  deal  with 
them  later  in  regard  to  the  international  ob- 
ligations of  the  German  Empire,  it  must  de- 


90  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

mand,  not  peace  negotiations,  but  surrender. 
Nothing  can  be  gained  by  leaving  this  essential 
thing  unsaid." 

Accept,  sir,  the  renewed  assurances  of  my 
high  consideration. 

Robert  Lansing. 


XVII 

AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  ELECTORATE  FOR 

POLITICAL  SUPPORT 

{October  2$,  1918) 

My  Fellow-countrymen, — The  Congres- 
sional elections  are  at  hand.  They  occur 
in  the  most  critical  period  our  country  has 
ever  faced,  or  is  likely  to  face  in  our  time. 
If  you  have  approved  of  my  leadership  and 
wish  me  to  continue  to  be  your  unembarrassed 
spokesman  in  affairs  at  home  and  abroad,  I 
earnestly  beg  that  you  will  express  yourselves 
unmistakably  to  that  effect  by  returning  a 
Democratic  majority  to  both  the  Senate  and 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

I  am  your  servant  and  will  accept  your 
judgment  without  cavil,  but  my  power  to 
administer  the  great  trust  assigned  me  by  the 
Constitution  would  be  seriously  impaired 
should  your  judgment  be  adverse,  and  I  must 
frankly  tell  you  so  because  so  many  critical 
issues  depend  upon  your  verdict.  No  scruple  of 
taste  must  in  grim  times  like  these  be  allowed 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  speaking  the  plain  truth. 


92  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

I  have  no  thought  of  suggesting  that  any 
political  party  is  paramount  in  matters  of 
patriotism.  I  feel  too  deeply  the  sacrifices 
which  have  been  made  in  this  war  by  all  our 
citizens,  irrespective  of  party  affiliations,  to 
harbor  such  an  idea.  I  mean  only  that  the 
difficulties  and  delicacies  of  our  present  task 
are  of  a  sort  that  makes  it  imperatively  nec- 
essary that  the  nation  should  give  its  un- 
divided support  to  the  Government  under  a 
unified  leadership,  and  that  a  Republican 
Congress  would  divide  the  leadership. 

The  leaders  of  the  minority  in  the  present 
Congress  have  unquestionably  been  pro-war, 
but  they  have  been  ant i- Administration.  At 
almost  every  turn  since  we  entered  the  war 
they  have  sought  to  take  the  choice  of  policy 
and  the  conduct  of  the  war  out  of  my  hands 
and  put  it  under  the  control  of  instrumen- 
talities of  their  own  choosing. 

NO  TIME  FOR  DIVIDED  COUNSELS 

This  is  no  time  either  for  divided  counsel 
or  for  divided  leadership.  Unity  of  command 
is  as  necessary  now  in  civil  action  as  it  is 
upon  the  field  of  battle.  If  the  control  of  the 
House  and  the  Senate  should  be  taken  away 
from  the  party  now  in  power,  an  opposing 
majority  could  assume  control  of  legislation 
and  oblige  all  action  to  be  taken  amid  con- 
test and  obstruction. 


AN  APPEAL  FOR  POLITICAL  SUPPORT  93 

The  return  of  a  Republican  majority  to 
either  House  of  the  Congress  would,  more- 
over, be  interpretative  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water  as  a  repudiation  of  my  leadership. 
Spokesmen  of  the  Republican  party  are  urg- 
ing you  to  elect  a  Republican  Congress  in 
order  to  back  up  and  support  the  President, 
but  even  if  they  should  in  this  impose  upon 
some  credulous  voters  on  this  side  of  the 
water,  they  would  impose  on  no  one  on  the 
other  side.  It  is  well  understood  there  as 
well  as  here  that  Republican  leaders  desire 
not  so  much  to  support  the  President  as  to 
control  him. 

The  peoples  of  the  Allied  countries  with 
whom  we  are  associated  against  Germany 
are  quite  familiar  with  the  significance  of 
elections.  They  would  find  it  very  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  voters  of  the  United 
States  had  chosen  to  support  their  President 
by  electing  to  the  Congress  a  majority  con- 
trolled by  those  who  are  not,  in  fact,  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  attitude  and  action  of  the 
Administration. 

I  need  not  tell  you,  my  fellow-countrymen, 
that  I  am  asking  your  support  not  for  my  own 
sake  or  for  the  sake  of  a  political  party, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  nation  itself  in  order 
that  its  inward  duty  of  purpose  may  be  evi- 
dent to  all  the  world.  In  ordinary  times  I 
would  not  feel  at  liberty  to  make  such  an 


94  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

appeal  to  you.  In  ordinary  times  divided 
counsel  can  be  endtired  without  permanent 
hurt  to  the  country.  But  these  are  not  ordi- 
nary times. 

If  in  these  critical  days  it  is  your  wish  to 
sustain  me  with  undivided  minds,  I  beg  that 
you  will  say  so  in  a  way  which  it  will  not  be 
possible  to  misunderstand,  either  here  at  home 
or  among  our  associates  on  the  other  side  of 
the  sea.  I  submit  my  difficulties  and  my 
hopes  to  you. 


XVIII 

THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED 
{Address  to  the  Congress,  November  ii,  1918) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress, — In  these 
times  of  rapid  and  stupendous  change  it  will 
in  some  degree  lighten  my  sense  of  respon- 
sibility to  perform  in  person  the  duty  of  com- 
municating to  you  some  of  the  larger  cir- 
cumstances of  the  situation  with  which  it  is 
necessary  to  deal. 

The  German  authorities,  who  have  at  the 
invitation  of  the  Supreme  War  Council  been 
in  communication  with  Marshal  Foch,  have 
accepted  and  signed  the  terms  of  armistice, 
which  he  was  authorized  and  instructed  to 
communicate  to  them.  Those  terms  ^  are  as 
follows : 

I — Military  Clauses  on  Western  Front 

One — Cessation  of  operations  by  land  and 
in  the  air  six  hours  after  the  signature  of  the 
armistice. 

Two — Immediate  evacuation  of  invaded 
^See  Appendix. 


96  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

countries — Belgium,  France,  Alsace-Lorraine, 
Luxemburg-^so  ordered  as  to  be  completed 
within  fourteen  days  from  the  signature  of 
the  armistice.  German  troops  which  have 
not  left  the  above-mentioned  territories  with- 
in the  period  fixed  will  become  prisoners  of 
war.  Occupation  by  the  Allied  and  United 
States  forces  jointly  will  keep  pace  with 
evacuation  in  these  areas.  All  movements 
of  evacuation  and  occupation  will  be  regulated 
in  accordance  with  a  note  annexed  to  the 
stated  terms. 

Three — Repatriation  beginning  at  once  and 
to  be  completed  within  fourteen  days  of  all 
inhabitants  of  the  countries  above  mentioned, 
including  hostages  and  persons  under  trial  or 
convicted. 

Four — Surrender  in  good  condition  by  the 
German  armies  of  the  following  equipment: 
Five  thousand  guns  (2,500  heavy,  2,500  field), 
30,000  machine  guns,  3,000  minenwerfer,  2,000 
aeroplanes  (fighters,  bombers — first  D  73s, 
and  night  bombing  machines).  The  above  to 
be  delivered  in  situ  to  the  Allies  and  the 
United  States  troops  in  accordance  with  the 
detailed  conditions  laid  down  in  the  annexed 
note. 

Five — Evacuation  by  the  German  armies 
of  the  countries  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine. 
These  countries  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine 
shall  be  administered  by  the  local  authorities 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED         97 

under  the  control  of  the  Allied  and  United 
States  armies  of  occupation.  The  occupa- 
tion of  these  territories  will  be  determined  by 
Allied  and  United  States  garrisons  holding 
the  principal  crossings  of  the  Rhine  (Mayence, 
Coblenz,  Cologne),  together  with  bridgeheads 
at  these  points,  in  a  thirty-kilometer  radius 
on  the  right  bank  and  by  garrisons  similarly 
holding  the  strategic  points  of  the  regions. 
A  neutral  zone  shall  be  reserved  on  the  right 
of  the  Rhine  between  the  stream  and  a  line 
drawn  parallel  to  it  forty  kilometers  to  the 
east  from  the  frontier  of  Holland  to  the 
parallel  of  Cernsheim  and  as  far  as  practi- 
cable a  distance  of  thirty  kilometers  from  the 
east  of  the  stream  from  this  parallel  upon 
Swiss  frontier.  Evacuation  by  the  enemy  of 
the  Rhinelands  shall  be  so  ordered  as  to  be 
completed  within  a  further  period  of  eleven 
days,  in  all  nineteen  days  after  the  signature 
of  the  armistice.  All  movements  of  evacua- 
tion and  occupation  will  be  regulated  accord- 
ing to  the  note  annexed. 

Six — In  all  territory  evacuated  by  the  enemy 
there  shall  be  no  evacuation  of  inhabitants. 
No  damage  or  harm  shall  be  done  to  the  per- 
sons or  property  of  the  inhabitants.  No 
destruction  of  any  kind  to  be  committed. 
MiHtary  establishments  of  all  kinds  shall  be 
delivered  intact,  as  well  as  miHtary  stores 
of  food,   munitions,  equipment  not  removed 


98  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

during  the  periods  fixed  for  evacuation. 
Stores  of  food  of  all  kinds  for  the  civil  popula- 
tion, cattle,  etc.,  shall  be  left  in  situ.  In- 
dustrial establishments  shall  not  be  impaired 
in  any  way,  and  their  personnel  shall  not  be 
moved.  Roads  and  means  of  communica- 
tion of  every  kind,  railroad,  waterways,  main 
roads,  bridges,  telegraphs,  telephones,  shall 
be  in  no  manner  impaired. 

Seven — ^All  civil  and  military  personnel 
at  present  employed  on  them  shall  remain. 
Five  thousand  locomotives,  fifty  thousand 
wagons,  and  ten  thousand  motor-lorries  in 
good  working  order,  with  all  necessary  spare 
parts  and  fittings,  shall  be  delivered  to  the 
associated  Powers  within  the  period  fixed 
for  the  evacuation  of  Belgium  and  Luxemburg. 
The  railways  of  Alsace-Lorraine  shall  be 
handed  over  within  the  same  period,  together 
with  all  pre-war  personnel  and  material. 
Further  material  necessary  for  the  working 
of  railways  in  the  country  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Rhine  shall  be  left  in  situ.  All  stores  of 
coal  and  material  for  the  upkeep  of  perma- 
nent ways,  signals,  and  repair-shops  shall  be 
left  entire  in  situ,  and  kept  in  an  efficient 
state  by  Germany  during  the  whole  period 
of  armistice.  All  barges  taken  from  the  Allies 
shall  be  restored  to  them.  A  note  appended 
regulates  the  details  of  these  meastues. 

Eight — The    German    command    shall    be 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDiD        loi 

responsible  for  revealing  all  mines  or  \^^  ^'^ 
acting  fuses  disposed  on  territory  evacu^tie 
by  the  German  troops,  and  shall  assist  in  then 
discovery  and  destruction.  The  German  com- 
mand shall  also  reveal  all  destructive  measures 
that  may  have  been  taken  (such  as  poisoning 
or  polluting  of  springs,  wells,  etc.),  imder  pen- 
alty of  reprisals. 

Nine — The  right  of  requisition  shall  be 
exercised  by  the  Allied  and  the  United  States 
armies  in  all  occupied  territory.  The  upkeep 
of  the  troops  of  occupation  in  the  Rhineland 
(excluding  Alsace-Lorraine)  shall  be  charged 
to  the  German  Government. 

Ten — An  immediate  repatriation  without 
reciprocity,  according  to  detailed  conditions, 
which  shall  be  fixed,  of  all  Allied  and  United 
States  prisoners  of  war.  The  Allied  Powers 
and  the  United  States  shall  be  able  to  dis- 
pose of  these  prisoners  as  they  wish. 

Eleven — Sick  and  wounded  who  cannot  be 
removed  from  evacuated  territory  will  be  cared 
for  by  German  personnel,  who  will  be  left  on 
the  spot  with  the  medical  material  required. 

II — Military  Clauses  on  Eastern  Front 

Twelve — All  German  troops  at  present  in 
any  territory  which  before  the  war  belonged 
to  Russia,  Rumania,  or  Turkey  shall  withdraw 
within  the  frontiers  of  Germany  as  they  ex- 
isted on  August  I,  1 9 14. 


GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 
98 

.     .  ,  teen— Evacuation  by  German  troops  to 

<^     ±1  at  once,    and   all   German   instructors, 

risoners,    and    civilian    as    well    as    military 

agents,   now  on  the  territory  of  Russia   (as 

defined  before  19 14),  to  be  recalled. 

Fourteen — German  troops  to  cease  at  once 
all  requisitions  and  seizures  and  any  other 
undertaking  -with  a  view  to  obtaining  supplies 
intended  for  Germany  in  Rumania  and  Russia 
(as  defined  on  August  i,  19 14). 

Fifteen — ^Abandonment  of  the  treaties  of 
Bucharest  and  Brest-Litovsk  and  of  the  sup- 
plementary treaties. 

Sixteen — The  Allies  shall  have  free  access 
to  the  territories  evacuated  by  the  Germans 
on  their  eastern  frontier,  either  through  Dan- 
zig or  by  the  Vistula,  in  order  to  convey  sup- 
plies to  the  populations  of  those  territories 
or  for  any  other  purpose. 

Ill — Clause  Concerning  East  Africa 

Seventeen — Unconditional  capitulation  of 
all  German  forces  operating  in  East  Africa, 
within  one  month. 

IV — General  Clauses 

Eighteen — Repatriation,  without  reciproc- 
ity, within  a  maximum  period  of  one  month, 
in  accordance  with  detailed  conditions  here- 
after to  be  fixed,  of  all  civilians  interned  or 
deported  who  may  be  citizens  of  other  Allied 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED       loi 

or  associated  states  than  those  mentioned  in 
clause  three,  paragraph  nineteen,  with  the 
reservation  that  any  future  claims  and  de- 
mands of  the  Allies  and  the  United  States  of 
America  remain  unaffected. 

Nineteen  —  The  following  financial  con- 
ditions are  required:  Reparation  for  damage 
done.  While  such  armistice  lasts  no  public 
securities  shall  be  removed  by  the  enemy  which 
can  serve  as  a  pledge  to  the  Allies  for  the  re- 
covery or  reparation  for  war  losses.  Im- 
mediate restitution  of  the  cash  deposit  in  the 
National  Bank  of  Belgium,  and  in  general 
immediate  return  of  all  documents,  specie, 
stocks,  shares,  paper  money,  together  with 
plant  for  the  issue  thereof,  touching  public 
or-  private  interests  in  the  invaded  countries. 
Restitution  of  the  Russian  and  Rumanian 
gold  yielded  to  Germany  or  taken  by  that 
Power.  This  gold  to  be  delivered  in  trust  to 
the  Allies  until  the  signature  of  peace. 

V — Naval  Conditions 

Twenty — Immediate  cessation  of  all  hostil- 
ities at  sea  and  definite  information  to  be  given 
as  to  the  location  and  movements  of  all  Ger- 
man ships.  Notification  to  be  given  to  neu- 
trals that  freedom  of  navigation  in  all  terri- 
torial waters  is  given  to  the  naval  and  mer- 
cantile marines  of  the  Allied  and  associated 
Powers,  all  question  of  neutrality  being  waived. 


102  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

Twenty-one — ^AU  naval  and  mercantile  ma- 
rine prisoners  of  war  of  the  Allied  and  asso- 
ciated Powers  in  German  hands  to  be  returned 
without  reciprocity. 

Twenty-two — Siurender  to  the  Allies  and 
the  United  States  of  America  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  German  submarines  (including  all 
submarine  cruisers  and  mine -laying  sub- 
marines), with  their  complete  armament  and 
equipment,  in  ports  which  'will  be  specified 
by  the  Allies  and  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica. All  other  submarines  to  be  paid  off 
and  completely  disarmed  and  placed  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Allied  Powers  and  the  United 
States  of  America. 

Twenty-three — ^The  following  German  sur- 
face war-ships,  which  shall  be  designated  by 
the  Allies  and  the  United  States  of  America, 
shall  forthwith  be  disarmed  and  thereafter 
interned  in  neutral  ports,  or,  for  the  want  of 
them,  in  Allied  ports,  to  be  designated  by  the 
Allies  and  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
placed  under  the  surveillance  of  the  Allies  and 
the  United  States  of  America,  only  care- 
takers being  left  on  board,  namely:  Six 
battle-cruisers,  ten  battle-ships,  eight  light 
cruisers,  including  two  mine-layers,  fifty  de- 
stroyers of  the  most  modern  type.  All  other 
surface  war-ships  (including  river  craft)  are 
to  be  concentrated  in  German  naval  bases  to 
be  designated  by  the  Allies  and  the  United 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED       103 

States  of  America,  and  are  to  be  paid  off  and 
completely  disarmed  and  placed  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Allies  and  the  United 
States  of  America.  All  vessels  of  the  Auxiliary 
fleet  (trawlers,  mot  or- vessels,  etc.),  are  to  be 
disarmed. 

Twenty-four — The  Allies  and  the  United 
States  of  America  shall  have  the  right  to 
sweep  up  all  mine-fields  and  obstructions  laid 
by  Germans  outside  German  territorial  waters, 
and  the  positions  of  these  are  to  be  indicated. 

Twenty-five — Freedom  of  access  to  and 
from  the  Baltic  to  be  given  to  the  naval  and 
mercantile  marines  of  the  Allied  and  as- 
sociated Powers.  To  secure  this,  the  Allies 
and  the  United  States  of  America  shall  be  em- 
powered to  occupy  all  German  forts,  forti- 
fications, batteries,  and  defense  works  of  all 
kinds  in  all  the  entrances  from  the  Cattegat 
into  the  Baltic,  and  to  sweep  up  all  mines 
and  obstructions  within  and  without  German 
territorial  waters,  without  any  question  of 
neutrality  being  raised,  and  the  positions  of 
all  such  mines  and  obstructions  are  to  be 
indicated. 

Twenty-six — The  existing  blockade  condi- 
tions set  up  by  the  Allied  and  associated 
Powers  are  to  remain  unchanged,  and  all 
German  merchant  ships  found  at  sea  are  to 
remain  liable  to  capture. 

Twenty-seven — ^AU  naval  aircraft  are  to  be 


104  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

concentrated  and  immobilized  in  German 
bases  to  be  specified  by  the  Allies  and  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Twenty-eight — In  evacuating  the  Belgian 
coasts  and  ports,  Germany  shall  abandon 
all  merchant-ships,  tugs,  lighters,  cranes,  and 
all  other  harbor  materials,  all  materials  for 
inland  navigation,  all  aircraft,  and  all  ma- 
terials and  stores,  all  arms  and  armaments, 
and  all  stores  and  apparatus  of  all  kinds. 

Twenty-nine — All  Black  Sea  ports  are  to 
be  evacuated  by  Germany;  all  Russian  war- 
vessels  of  all  descriptions  seized  by  Germany  in 
the  Black  Sea  are  to  be  handed  over  to  the 
Allies  and  the  United  States  of  America. 
All  neutral  merchant-vessels  seized  are  to  be 
released;  all  warlike  and  other  materials  of 
all  kinds  seized  in  those  ports  are  to  be  re- 
turned, and  German  materials  as  specified 
in  clause  twenty-eight  are  to  be  abandoned. 

Thirty — All  merchant-vessels  in  German 
hands  belonging  to  the  Allied  and  associated 
Powers  are  to  be  restored  in  ports  to  be  speci- 
fied by  the  Allies  and  the  United  States  of 
America  without  reciprocity. 

Thirty-one — No  destruction  of  ships  or  of 
materials  to  be  permitted  before  evacuation, 
surrender,  or  restoration. 
.  Thirty-two — The  German  Government  will 
notify  the  neutral  Governments  of  the  world, 
and  particularly  the  Governments  of  Norway, 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED        105 

Sweden,  Denmark;  and  Holland,  that  all 
restrictions  placed  on  the  trading  of  their 
vessels  with  the  Allied  and  associated  coun- 
tries, whether  by  the  German  Government 
or  by  private  German  interests,  and  whether 
in  return  for  specific  concessions,  such  as  the 
export  of  ship-building  materials  or  not,  are 
immediately  canceled. 

Thirty-three — No  transfers  of  German  mer- 
chant shipping  of  any  description  to  any 
neutral  flag  are  to  take  place  after  signature 
of  the  armistice. 

VI — Duration  of  Armistice 

Thirty-four — The  duration  of  the  armistice 
is  to  be  thirty  days,  with  option  to  extend. 
During  this  period,  on  failure  of  execution  of 
any  of  the  above  clauses,  the  armistice  may  be 
denounced  by  one  of  the  contracting  parties 
on  forty-eight  hours'  previous  notice. 

VII — Time  Limit  for  Reply 

Thirty-five — This  armistice  to  be  accepted 
or  refused  by  Germany  within  seventy-two 
hours  of  notification. 


Having  finished  his  reading  of  the  terms  of 
armistice,  the  President  continued  as  follows: 

The  war  thus  comes  to  an  end;   for  having 
accepted  these  terms  of  armistice,  it  will  be 


ij6  guarantees  of  PEACE 

impossible  for  the  German  command  to  renew 
it.  It  is  not  now  possible  to  assess  the  conse- 
quences of  this  great  consummation.  We 
know  only  that  this  tragical  war,  whose  con- 
suming flames  swept  from  one  nation  to  an- 
other until  all  the  world  was  on  fire,  is  at  an 
end,  and  that  it  was  the  privilege  of  our  own 
people  to  enter  it  at  its  most  critical  juncture 
in  such  fashion  and  in  such  force  as  to  con- 
tribute in  a  way  of  which  we  are  all  deeply 
proud  to  the  great  result.  We  know,  too,  that 
the  object  of  the  war  is  attained,  the  object 
upon  which  all  free  men  had  set  their  hearts, 
and  attained  with  a  sweeping  completeness 
which  even  now  we  do  not  realize.  Armed 
inperialism  such  as  the  men  conceived  who 
were  but  yesterday  the  masters  of  Germany  is 
at  an  end,  its  illicit  ambitions  engulfed  in  black 
disaster.  Who  will  now  seek  to  revive  it? 
The  arbitrary  power  of  the  military  caste  of 
Germany  which  once  could  secretly  and  of 
its  own  single  choice  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
world  is  discredited  and  destroyed. 

PEACE  AND  JUSTICE  ASSURED 

And  more  than  that — much  more  than  that 
— has  been  accomplished.  The  great  nations 
which  associated  themselves  to  destroy  it 
have  now  definitely  united  in  the  common 
purpose  to  set  up  such  a  peace  as  will  satisfy 
the  longing  of  the  whole  world  for  disinter- 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED       107 

ested  justice,  embodied  in  settlements  which 
are  based  upon  something  much  better  and 
more  lasting  than  the  selfish  competitive 
interests  of  powerful  states.  There  is  no 
longer  conjecture  as  to  the  objects  the  vic- 
tors have  in  mind.  They  have  a  mind  in  the 
matter,  not  only,  but  a  heart  also.  Their 
avowed  and  concerted  purpose  is  to  satisfy 
and  protect  the  weak  as  well  as  to  accord 
their  just  rights  to  the  strong. 

The  humane  temper  and  intention  of  the 
victorious  Governments  have  already  been 
manifested  in  a  very  practical  way.  Their 
representatives  in  the  Supreme  War  Council 
at  Versailles  have,  by  unanimous  resolution, 
assured  the  peoples  of  the  Central  Empires 
that  everything  that  is  possible  in  the  cir- 
cumstances will  be  done  to  supply  them  with 
food  and  relieve  the  distressing  want  that  is 
in  so  many  places  threatening  their  very  lives, 
and  steps  are  to  be  taken  immediately  to  or- 
ganize these  efforts  at  relief  in  the  same  sys- 
tematic manner  that  they  were  organized  in 
the  case  of  Belgium.  By  the  use  of  the  idle 
tonnage  of  the  Central  Empires  it  ought 
presently  to  be  possible  to  lift  the  fear  of  utter 
misery  from  their  oppressed  populations  and 
set  their  minds  and  energies  free  for  the 
great  and  hazardous  tasks  of  poHtical  recon- 
struction which  now  face  them  on  every  hand. 
Himger   does   not   breed   reform;    it   breeds 


io8  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

madness  and  all  the  ugly  distempers  that  make 
an  ordered  life  impossible. 

For,  with  the  fall  of  the  ancient  govern- 
ments, which  rested  like  an  incubus  on  the 
peoples  of  the  Central  Empires,  has  come 
political  change  not  merely,  but  revolution; 
and  revolution  which  seems  as  yet  to  assume 
no  final  and  ordered  form,  but  to  run  from  one 
fluid  change  to  another,  until  thoughtful  men 
are  forced  to  ask  themselves,  with  what  Gov- 
ernments and  of  what  sort  are  we  about  to 
deal  in  the  making  of  the  covenants  of  peace  ? 
With  what  authority  will  they  meet  us,  and 
with  what  assurance  that  their  authority  will 
abide  and  sustain  securely  the  international 
arrangements  into  which  we  are  about  to  en- 
ter? There  is  here  matter  for  no  small  anxiety 
and  misgiving.  When  peace  is  made,  upon 
whose  promises  and  engagements  besides  oiir 
own  is  it  to  rest? 

WE    MUST    BE   PATIENT   AND   HELPFUL 

Let  us  be  perfectly  frank  with  ourselves  and 
admit  that  these  questions  cannot  be  sat- 
isfactorily answered  now  or  at  once.  But 
the  moral  is  not  that  there  is  little  hope  of 
an  early  answer  that  will  suffice.  It  is  only 
that  we  must  be  patient  and  helpful  and  mind- 
ful above  all  of  the  great  hope  and  confidence 
that  lies  at  the  heart  of  what  is  taking  place. 
Excesses  accomplish  nothing.     Unhappy  Rus- 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IS  ENDED        109 

sia  has  furnished  abundant  recent  proof  of 
that.  Disorder  immediately  defeats  itself. 
If  excesses  should  occur,  if  disorder  should  for 
a  time  raise  its  head,  a  sober  second  thought 
will  follow,  and  a  day  of  constructive  action 
if  we  help  and  do  not  hinder. 

The  present  and  all  that  it  holds  belongs 
to  the  nations  and  the  peoples  who  preserve 
their  self-control  and  the  orderly  processes  of 
their  governments,  the  future  to  those  who 
prove  themselves  the  true  friends  of  man- 
kind; to  conquer  with  arms  is  to  make  only 
a  temporary  conquest;  to  conquer  the  world 
by  earning  its  esteem  is  to  make  permanent 
conquest.  I  am  confident  that  the  nations 
that  have  learned  the  discipline  of  freedom  and 
that  have  settled  with  self-possession  to  its 
ordered  practice  are  now  about  to  make  con- 
quest of  the  world  by  the  sheer  power  of  ex- 
ample and  of  friendly  helpfulness. 

The  peoples  who  have  but  just  come  out 
from  under  the  yoke  of  arbitrary  government, 
and  who  are  now  coming  at  last  into  their 
freedom,  will  never  find  the  treastires  of  lib- 
erty they  are  in  search  of  if  they  look  for  them 
by  the  light  of  the  torch.  They  will  find 
that  every  pathway  that  is  stained  with  the 
blood  of  their  own  brothers  leads  to  the 
wilderness,  not  to  the  seat  of  their  hope.  They 
are  now  face  to  face  with  their  initial  test. 
We  must  hold  the  light  steady  until  they  find 


no  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

themselves.  And  in  the  mean  time,  if  it  be 
possible,  we  must  estabhsh  a  peace  that  will 
justly  define  their  place  among  the  nations, 
remove  all  fear  of  their  neighbors  and  of  their 
former  masters,  and  enable  them  to  live  in 
security  and  contentment  when  they  have  set 
their  own  affairs  in  order. 

I,  for  one,  do  not  doubt  their  purpose  or 
their  capacity.  There  are  some  happy  signs 
that  they  know  and  will  choose  the  way  of 
self-control  and  peaceful  accommodation.  If 
they  do,  we  shall  put  our  aid  at  their  disposal 
in  every  way  that  we  can.  If  they  do  not,  we 
must  await  with  patience  and  sympathy  the 
awakening  and  recovery  that  will  assuredly 
come  at  last. 


XIX 

A  PROCLAMATION  OF  THANKSGIVING  FOR 

VICTORY 

{November  17,  igi8) 

It  has  long  been  our  custom  to  turn  in  the 
autumn  of  the  year  in  praise  and  thanks- 
giving to  Almighty  God  for  His  many  blessings 
and  mercies  to  us  as  a  nation.  This  year  we 
have  special  and  moving  cause  to  be  grateful 
and  to  rejoice. 

God  has  in  His  good  pleasure  given  us  peace. 
It  has  not  come  as  a  mere  cessation  of  arms, 
a  mere  reHef  from  the  strain  and  tragedy  of 
war.  It  has  come  as  a  great  triumph  of  right. 
Complete  victory  has  brought  us,  not  peace 
alone,  but  the  confident  promise  of  a  new  day 
as  well,  in  which  justice  shall  replace  force  and 
jealous  intrigue  among  the  nations. 

Our  gallant  armies  have  participated  in  a 
triumph  which  is  not  marred  or  stained  by  any 
purpose  of  selfish  aggression.  In  a  righteous 
cause  they  have  won  immortal  glory  and  have 
nobly  served  their  nation  in  serving  mankind. 

God  has  indeed  been  gracious.     We  have 


112  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

cause  for  such  rejoicing  as  revives  and  strength- 
ens in  us  all  the  best  traditions  of  national  his- 
tory. A  new  day  shines  about  us  in  which 
our  hearts  take  new  courage  and  look  for- 
ward with  open  hope  to  new  and  greater  duties. 

While  we  render  thanks  for  these  things,  let 
us  not  forget  to  seek  the  divine  guidance  in 
the  performance  of  these  duties,  and  divine 
mercy  and  forgiveness  for  all  errors  of  act  or 
purpose,  and  pray  in  all  that  we  do  we  shall 
strengthen  the  ties  of  friendship  and  mutual 
respect  upon  which  we  must  assist  to  build 
the  new  structure  of  peace  and  good  will 
among  the  nations. 

Wherefore,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  do  hereby 
designate  Thursday,  the  twenty-eighth  day 
of  November  next,  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving 
and  prayer  and  invite  the  people  throughout 
the  land  ^to  cease  upon  that  day  from  their 
ordinary  occupations,  and  in  their  several 
homes  and  places  of  worship  to  render  thanks 
to  God,  the  Ruler  of  Nations. 


XX 

PROBLEMS   OF  READJUSTMENT 
{December  2,  1918) 

The  President,  appearing  before  both  branches 
of  the  Congress,  spoke  as  follows : 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress, — The  year 
that  has  elapsed  since  I  last  stood  before 
you  to  fulfil  my  constitutional  duty  to  give 
the  Congress  from  time  to  time  informa- 
tion on  the  state  of  the  Union  has  been  so 
crowded  with  great  events,  great  processes, 
and  great  results  that  I  cannot  hope  to  give 
you  an  adequate  picture  of  its  transactions 
or  of  the  far-reaching  changes  which  have 
been  wrought  in  the  life  of  our  nation  and  of 
the  world.  You  have  yoiu-selves  witnessed 
these  things,  as  I  have.  It  is  too  soon  to  as- 
sess them;  and  we  who  stand  in  the  midst  of 
them  and  are  part  of  them  are  less  qualified 
than  men  of  another  generation  will  be  to  say 
what  they  mean  or  even  what  they  have  been. 
But  some  great  outstanding  facts  are  un- 
mistakable and  constitute  in  a  sense  part  of 
the  public  business  with  which  it  is  our  duty 


114  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

to  deal.  To  state  them  is  to  set  the  stage  for 
the  legislative  and  executive  action  which  must 
grow  out  of  them  and  which  we  have  yet  to 
shape  and  determine. 

THE  OVERSEA  TRIUMPH 

A  year  ago  we  had  sent  145,198  men  over- 
seas. Since  then  we  have  sent  1,950,513,  an 
average  of  162,542  each  month,  the  number, 
in  fact,  rising  in  May  last  to  245,951,  in  June 
to  278,760,  in  July  to  307,182,  and  continuing 
to  reach  similar  figures  in  August  and  Septem- 
ber— in  August  289,570  and  in  September 
257,438.  No  such  movement  of  troops  ever 
took  place  before  across  3,000  miles  of  sea, 
followed  by  adequate  equipment  and  supplies, 
and  carried  safely  through  extraordinary 
dangers  of  attack — dangers  which  were  aHke 
strange  and  infinitely  difficult  to  guard  against. 
In  all  this  movement  only  758  men  were  lost 
by  enemy  attacks — 630  of  whom  were  upon  a 
single  English  transport,  which  was  sunk  near 
the  Orkney  Islands. 

I  need  not  tell  you  what  lay  back  of  this 
great  movement  of  men  and  material.  It  is 
not  invidious  to  say  that  back  of  it  lay  a 
supporting  organization  of  the  industries  of 
the  country  and  of  all  its  productive  activi- 
ties more  complete,  more  thorough  in  method 
and  effective  in  results,  more  spirited  and 
unanimous  in  purpose  and  effort,  than  any 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      115 

other  great  belligerent  had  ever  been  able  to 
effect.  We  profited  greatly  by  the  experi- 
ence of  the  nations  which  had  already  been 
engaged  for  nearly  three  years  in  the  exigent 
and  exacting  business,  their  every  resource 
and  every  executive  proficiency  taxed  to  the 
utmost.  We  were  the  pupils.  But  we  learned 
quickly  and  acted  with  a  promptness  and  a 
readiness  of  co-operation  that  justify  oiu*  great 
pride  that  we  were  able  to  serve  the  world 
with  unparalleled  energy  and  quick  accom- 
plishment. 

TRIBUTE  TO  TROOPS 

But  it  is  not  the  physical  scale  and  executive 
efficiency  of  preparation,  supply,  equipment, 
and  despatch  that  I  would  dwell  upon,  but  the 
mettle  and  quality  of  the  officers  and  men  we 
sent  over  and  of  the  sailors  who  kept  the  seas 
and  the  spirit  of  the  nation  that  stood  behind 
them.  No  soldiers  or  sailors  ever  proved 
themselves  more  quickly  ready  for  the  test 
of  battle  or  acquitted  themselves  with  more 
splendid  coiu-age  and  achievement  when  put 
to  the  test.  Those  of  us  who  played  some 
part  in  directing  the  great  processes  by  which 
the  war  was  pushed  irresistibly  forward  to 
the  final  triumph  may  now  forget  all  that  and 
delight  our  thoughts  with  the  story  of  what 
our  men  did.  Their  officers  understood  the 
grim  and  exacting  task  they  had  undertaken 


ii6  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

and  performed  with  audacity,  efficiency,  and 
unhesitating  courage  that  touch  the  story  of 
convoy  and  battle  with  imperishable  dis- 
tinction at  every  turn,  whether  the  enterprise 
were  great  or  small — from  their  chiefs,  Per- 
shing and  Sims,  down  to  the  youngest  lieu- 
tenant ;  and  their  men  were  worthy  of  them — 
such  men  as  hardly  need  to  be  commanded, 
and  go  to  their  terrible  adventure  blithely 
and  with  the  quick  intelligence  of  those  who 
know  just  what  it  is  they  would  accomplish. 
I  am  proud  to  be  the  fellow-countryman  of 
men  of  such  stuff  and  valor.  Those  of  us  who 
stayed  at  home  did  our  duty;  the  war  could 
not  have  been  won  or  the  gallant  men  who 
fought  it  given  their  opportunity  to  win  it 
otherwise;  but  for  many  a  long  day  we  shall 
think  ourselves  ''accurs'd  we  were  not  there, 
and  hold  our  manhoods  cheap  while  any  speaks 
that  fought,"  with  these  at  St.  Mihiel  or 
Thierry.  The  memory  of  those  days  of 
triumphant  battle  will  go  with  these  fortunate 
men  to  their  graves;  and  each  will  have  his 
favorite  memory.  ''Old  men  forget;  yet  all 
shall  be  forgot,  but  he'll  remember  with  ad- 
vantages what  feats  he  did  that  day!" 

What  we  all  thank  God  for  with  deepest 
gratitude  is  that  our  men  went  in  force  into 
the  Hne  of  battle  just  at  the  critical  moment 
when  the  whole  fate  of  the  world  seemed  to 
hang  in  the  balance,  and  threw  their  fresh 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      117 

strength  into  the  ranks  of  freedom  in  time  to 
turn  the  whole  tide  and  sweep  of  the  fateful 
struggle — turn  it  once  for  all,  so  that  thence- 
forth it  was  back,  back,  back  for  their  enemies ; 
always  back,  never  again  forward !  After  that 
it  was  only  a  scant  four  months  before  the 
commanders  of  the  Central  Empires  knew 
themselves  beaten;  and  now  their  very  em- 
pires are  in  liquidation! 

UNITY  OF  THE  NATIONS 

And  throughout  it  all  how  fine  the  spirit 
of  the  nation  was;  what  unity  of  purpose, 
what  untiring  zeal!  What  elevation  of  pur- 
pose ran  through  all  its  splendid  display  of 
strength,  its  untiring  accomplishment.  I  have 
said  that  those  of  us  who  stayed  at  home  to 
do  the  work  of  organization  and  supply  will 
always  wish  that  we  had  been  with  the  men 
whom  we  sustained  by  our  labor;  but  we  can 
never  be  ashamed.  It  has  been  an  inspiring 
thing  to  be  here  in  the  midst  of  fine  men  who 
had  turned  aside  from  every  private  interest  of 
their  own  and  devoted  the  whole  of  their 
trained  capacity  to  the  tasks  that  supplied 
the  sinews  of  the  whole  great  undertaking! 
The  patriotism,  the  unselfishness,  the  thorough- 
going devotion  and  distinguished  capacity  that 
marked  their  toilsome  labors  day  after  day, 
month  after  month,  have  shown  them  fit  mates 
and  comrades  of  the  men  in  the  trenches  and 


ii8  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

on  the  sea.  And  not  the  men  here  in  Washing- 
ton only.  They  have  but  directed  the  vast 
achievement.  Throughout  innumerable  fac- 
tories, upon  innumerable  farms,  in  the  depths 
of  coal-mines  and  iron-mines  and  copper- 
mines,  wherever  the  stuffs  of  industry  were  to 
be  obtained  and  prepared,  in  the  shipyards, 
on  railways,  at  the  docks,  on  the  sea,  in  every 
labor  that  was  needed  to  sustain  the  battle- 
lines,  men  have  vied  with  each  other  to  do 
their  part  and  do  it  well.  They  can  look  any 
man  at  arms  in  the  face  and  say,  we  also 
strove  to  win  and  gave  the  best  that  was  in 
us  to  make  our  fleets  and  armies  sure  of  their 
triumph ! 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  women — of 
their  instant  intelligence,  quickening  every  task 
that  they  touched;  their  capacity  for  organi- 
zation and  co-operation,  which  gave  their  ac- 
tion discipline  and  enhanced  the  effectiveness 
of  everything  they  attempted;  their  aptitude 
at  tasks  to  which  they  had  never  before  set 
their  hands;  their  utter  self-sacrifice  alike  in 
what  they  did  and  in  what  they  gave?  Their 
contribution  to  the  great  result  is  beyond 
appraisal.  They  have  added  a  new  luster  to 
the  annals  of  American  womanhood. 

APPEAL  FOR  SUFFRAGE 

The  least  tribute  we  can  pay  them  is  to 
make  them  the  equals  of  men  in  political  rights 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      119 

as  they  have  proved  themselves  their  equals  in 
every  field  of  practical  work  they  have  entered, 
whether  for  themselves  or  for  their  country. 
These  great  days  of  completed  achievements 
would  be  sadly  marred  were  we  to  omit  that 
act  of  justice.  Besides  the  immense  practical 
services  they  have  rendered,  the  women  of  the 
country  have  been  the  moving  spirits  in  the 
systematic  economies  by  which  our  people 
have  voluntarily  assisted  to  supply  the  suffer- 
ing peoples  of  the  world  and  the  armies  upon 
every  front  with  food  and  everything  else 
that  we  had  that  might  serve  the  common 
cause.  The  details  of  such  a  story  can  never 
be  fully  written,  but  we  carry  them  at  our 
hearts  and  thank  God  that  we  can  say  that 
we  are  the  kinsmen  of  such. 

And  now  we  are  sure  of  the  great  triumph 
for  which  every  sacrifice  was  made.  It  has 
come,  come  in  its  completeness,  and  with  the 
pride  and  inspiration  of  these  days  of  achieve- 
ment quick  within  us  we  turn  to  the  tasks 
of  peace  again — a  peace  secure  against  the 
violence  of  irresponsible  monarchs  and  am- 
bitious military  coteries — and  make  ready  for 
a  new  order,  for  new  foundations  of  justice 
and  fair  dealing. 

SEEK  INTERNATIONAL  JUSTICE 

We  are  about  to  give  order  and  organi- 
zation to  this  peace,  not  only  for  ourselves,  but 
9 


I20  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

for  the  other  peoples  of  the  world  as  well,  so 
far  as  they  will  suffer  us  to  serve  them.  It 
is  international  justice  that  we  seek,  not  do- 
mestic safety  merely.  Our  thoughts  have 
dwelt  of  late  upon  Europe,  upon  Asia,  upon 
the  near  and  the  far  East,  very  little  upon 
the  acts  of  peace  and  accommodation  that 
wait  to  be  performed  at  our  own  doors. 
While  we  are  adjusting  our  relations  with  the 
rest  of  the  world  is  it  not  of  capital  impor- 
tance that  we  should  clear  away  all  grounds 
of  misunderstanding  with  our  imxmediate 
neighbors  and  give  proof  of  the  friendship  we 
really  feel?  I  hope  that  the  members  of  the 
Senate  will  permit  me  to  speak  once  more  of 
the  unratified  treaty  of  friendship  and  ad- 
justment with  the  Republic  of  Colombia.  I 
very  earnestly  urge  upon  them  an  early  and 
favorable  action  upon  that  vital  matter.  I 
believe  that  they  will  feel,  with  me,  that  the 
stage  of  affairs  is  now  set  for  such  action  as 
will  be  not  only  just  but  generous  and  in  the 
spirit  of  the  new  age  upon  which  we  have 
so  happily  entered. 

So  far  as  our  domestic  affairs  are  concerned, 
the  problem  of  our  return  to  peace  is  a  problem 
of  economic  and  industrial  readjustment. 
That  problem  is  less  serious  for  us  than  it 
may  turn  out  to  be  for  the  nations  which  have 
suffered   the  disarrangements  and  the  losses 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      121 

of  the  war  longer  than  we.  Our  people,  more- 
over, do  not  wait  to  be  coached  and  led. 
They  know  their  own  business,  are  quick  and 
resourceful  at  every  readjustment,  definite  in 
piirpose  and  self-reliant  in  action.  Any  lead- 
ing-strings we  might  seek  to  put  them  in  would 
speedily  become  hopelessly  tangled  because 
they  would  pay  no  attention  to  them  and  go 
their  own  way.  All  that  we  can  do  as  their 
legislative  and  executive  servants  is  to  mediate 
the  process  of  change  here,  there,  and  else- 
where as  we  may.  I  have  heard  much  coun- 
sel as  to  the  plans  that  should  be  formed 
and  personally  conducted  to  a  happy  con- 
summation, but  from  no  quarter  have  I 
seen  any  general  scheme  of  ''reconstruction" 
emerge  which  I  thought  it  likely  we  could 
force  our  spirited  business  men  and  self- 
reliant  laborers  to  accept  with  due  pliancy 
and  obedience. 

NEED  OF  AMERICAN  AID 

While  the  war  lasted  we  set  up  many 
agencies  by  which  to  direct  the  industries  of 
the  country  in  the  services  it  was  necessary 
for  them  to  render,  by  w^hich  to  make  sure  of 
an  abundant  supply  of  the  materials  needed, 
by  which  to  check  undertakings  that  could 
for  the  time  be  dispensed  with  and  stimulate 
those  that  were  most  serviceable  in  war,  by 


122  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

which  to  gain  for  the  purchasing  departments 
of  the  Government  a  certain  control  over  the 
prices  of  essential  articles  and  materials,  by 
which  to  restrain  trade  with  alien  enemies, 
make  the  most  of  the  available  shipping  and 
systematize  financial  transactions,  both  public 
and  private,  so  that  there  would  be  no  un- 
necessary conflict  or  confusion — by  which, 
in  short,  to  put  every  material  energy  of  the 
country  in  harness  to  draw  the  common  load 
and  make  of  us  one  team  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  great  task.  But  the  moment  we 
knew  the  armistice  to  have  been  signed  we 
took  the  harness  off.  Raw  materials  upon 
which  the  Government  had  kept  its  hand  for 
fear  there  should  not  be  enough  for  the  in- 
dustries that  supplied  the  armies  have  been 
released  and  put  into  the  general  market  again. 
Great  industrial  plants  whose  whole  output 
and  machinery  had  been  taken  over  for  the 
uses  of  the  Government  have  been  set  free 
to  return  to  the  uses  to  which  they  were  put 
before  the  war.  It  has  not  been  possible  to 
remove  so  readily  or  so  quickly  the  control 
of  foodstuffs  and  of  shipping  because  the 
world  has  still  to  be  fed  from  our  granaries  and 
the  ships  are  still  needed  to  send  supplies  to 
our  men  overseas  and  to  bring  the  men  back 
as  fast  as  the  disturbed  conditions  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water  permit;  but  even 
there  restraints  are  being  relaxed  as  much  as 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      123 

possible  and   more   and   more  as  the  weeks 
go  by. 

EFFICIENCY  AT  HOME 

Never  before  have  there  been  agencies  in 
existence  in  this  country  which  knew  so  much 
of  the  field  of  supply,  of  labor  and  of  industry, 
as  the  War  Industries  Board,  the  War  Trade 
Board,  the  Labor  Department,  the  Food 
Administration,  and  the  Fuel  Administration 
have  known  since  the  labors  became  thor- 
oughly systematized ;  and  they  have  not  been 
isolated  agencies;  they  have  been  directed 
by  men  who  represented  the  permanent  de- 
partments of  the  Government  and  so  have 
been  the  centers  of  unified  and  co-operative 
action.  It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  Execu- 
tive, therefore,  since  the  armistice  was  assured 
(which  is  in  effect  a  complete  submission  of 
the  enemy),  to  put  the  knowledge  of  these 
bodies  at  the  disposal  of  the  business  men  of 
the  country  and  to  offer  their  intelligent  medi- 
ation at  every  point  and  in  every  matter 
where  it  was  desired.  It  is  surprising  how  fast 
the  process  of  return  to  a  peace  footing  has 
moved  in  the  three  weeks  since  the  fighting 
stopped.  It  promises  to  outrun  any  inquiry 
that  may  be  instituted  and  any  aid  that  may  be 
offered.  It  will  not  be  easy  to  direct  it  any 
better  than  it  will  direct  itself.  The  Ameri- 
can business  man  is  of  quick  initiative. 


124  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 


WORK  OF  RE-EMPLOYMENT 

The  ordinary  and  normal  processes  of 
private  initiative  will  not,  however,  provide 
immediate  employment  for  all  of  the  men 
of  our  returning  armies.  Those  who  are  of 
trained  capacity,  those  who  are  skilled  work- 
men, those  who  have  acquired  familiarity 
with  established  businesses,  those  who  are 
ready  and  willing  to  go  to  the  farms,  all  those 
whose  aptitudes  are  known  or  will  be  sought 
out  by  employers,  will  find  no  difficulty,  it 
is  safe  to  say,  in  finding  place  and  employ- 
ment. But  there  will  be  others  who  will  be 
at  a  loss  where  to  gain  a  livelihood  unless 
pains  are  taken  to  guide  them  and  put  them 
in  the  way  of  work.  There  will  be  a  large 
floating  residuum  of  labor  which  should  not 
be  left  wholly  to  shift  for  itself.  It  seems  to 
me  important,  therefore,  that  the  develop- 
ment of  public  works  of  every  sort  should  be 
promptly  resumed,  in  order  that  opportuni- 
ties should  be  created  for  unskilled  labor  in 
particular,  and  that  plans  should  be  made  for 
such  developments  of  our  unused  lands  and 
oiu*  natural  resources  as  we  have  hitherto 
lacked  stimulation  to  undertake. 

I  particularly  direct  your  attention  to  the 
very  practical  plans  which  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  has  developed  in  his  annual  report 
and  before  your  committees  for  the  reclama- 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      125 

tion  of  arid,  swamp,  and  cut-over  lands,  which 
might,  if  the  states  were  VvdlHng  and  able  to 
co-operate,  redeem  some  three  hundred  million 
acres  of  land  for  cultivation.  There  are  said 
to  be  fifteen  or  twenty  million  acres  of  land 
in  the  West  at  present  arid,  for  whose  rec- 
lamation water  is  available,  if  properly  con- 
served. There  are  about  two  hundred  and 
thirty  million  acres  from  which  the  forests 
have  been  cut,  but  which  have  never  yet  been 
cleared  for  the  plow  and  which  lie  waste  and 
desolate.  These  lie  scattered  all  over  the 
Union.  And  there  are  nearly  eighty  million 
acres  of  land  that  lie  under  swamps  or  sub- 
ject to  periodical  overflow  or  too  wet  for 
anything  but  grazing,  which  it  is  perfectly 
feasible  to  drain  and  protect  and  redeem. 
The  Congress  can  at  once  direct  thousands  of 
returning  soldiers  to  the  reclamation  of  the 
arid  lands,  which  it  has  already  undertaken, 
if  it  will  but  enlarge  the  plans  and  the  ap- 
propriations which  it  has  intrusted  to  the 
Department  of  the  Interior.  It  is  possible 
in  dealing  with  our  unused  land  to  effect 
a  great  rural  and  agricultural  development 
which  will  afford  the  best  sort  of  oppor- 
tunity to  men  who  want  to  help  them- 
selves, and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
has  thought  the  possible  methods  out  in  a 
way  which  is  worthy  of  yoiir  most  friendly 
attention. 


126  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

AID  FOR  FRANCE  AND  BELGIUM 

I  have  spoken  of  the  control  which  must  yet 
for  a  while,  perhaps  for  a  long  while,  be  ex- 
ercised over  shipping  because  of  the  priority 
of  service  to  which  our  forces  overseas  are 
entitled  and  which  should  also  be  accorded 
the  shipments  which  are  to  save  recently  lib- 
erated peoples  from  starvation  and  many 
devastated  regions  from  permanent  ruin. 
May  I  not  say  a  special  word  about  the  needs 
of  Belgium  and  northern  France?  No  sums  of 
money  paid  by  way  of  indemnity  will  serve 
of  themselves  to  save  them  from  hopeless  dis- 
advantage for  years  to  come.  Something 
more  must  be  done  than  merely  find  the  money. 
If  they  had  money  and  raw  materials  in 
abundance  to-morrow  they  could  not  resume 
their  place  in  the  industry  of  the  world  to- 
morrow— the  very  important  place  they  held 
before  the  flame  of  war  swept  across  them. 
Many  of  their  factories  are  razed  to  the  ground. 
Much  of  their  machinery  is  destroyed  or  has 
been  taken  away.  Their  people  are  scattered 
and  many  of  their  best  workmen  are  dead. 
Their  markets  will  be  taken  by  others,  if 
they  are  not  in  some  special  way  assisted  to 
rebuild  their  factories  and  replace  their  lost 
instruments  of  manufacttue.  They  should 
not  be  left  to  the  vicissitudes  of  the  sharp 
competition  for  materials  and  for  industrial 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT       127 

facilities  which  is  now  to  set  in.  I  hope,  there- 
fore, that  the  Congress  will  not  be  unwilling, 
if  it  should  become  necessary,  to  grant  to  some 
such  agency  as  the  War  Trade  Board  the  right 
t©  establish  priorities  of  export  and  supply 
for  the  benefit  of  these  people  whom  we  have 
been  so  happy  to  assist  in  saving  from  the 
German  terror  and  whom  we  must  not  now 
thoughtlessly  leave  to  shift  for  themselves  in 
a  pitiless  competitive  market. 

QUESTIONS  OF  TAXATION 

For  the  steadying  and  facilitation  of  our 
own  domestic  business  readjustments  nothing 
is  more  important  than  the  immediate  de- 
termination of  the  taxes  that  are  to  be  levied 
for  1918,  1919,  and  1920.  As  much  of  the 
burden  of  taxation  must  be  lifted  from  busi- 
ness as  sound  methods  of  financing  the  Gov- 
ernment will  permit,  and  those  who  conduct 
the  great  essential  industries  of  the  country 
must  be  told  as  exactly  as  possible  what 
obligations  to  the  Government  they  will  be 
expected  to  meet  in  the  years  immediately 
ahead  of  them.  It  will  be  of  serious  conse- 
quence to  the  country  to  delay  removing  all 
uncertainties  in  this  matter  a  single  day  longer 
than  the  right  processes  of  debate  justify.  It 
is  idle  to  talk  of  successful  and  confident  busi- 
ness reconstruction  before  those  uncertainties 
are  resolved. 


128  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

If  the  war  had  continued  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  raise  at  least  eight  billion 
dollars  by  taxation,  payable  in  the  year  1919; 
but  the  war  has  ended,  and  I  am  agreed  with 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  it  will  be 
safe  to  reduce  the  amount  to  six  bilHons. 
An  immediate  rapid  decline  in  the  expenses  of 
the  Government  is  not  to  be  looked  for.  Con- 
tracts made  for  war  supplies  will,  indeed,  be 
rapidly  cancelled  and  liquidated,  but  their 
immediate  liquidation  will  make  heavy  drains 
on  the  Treasury  for  the  months  just  ahead 
of  us.  The  maintenance  of  our  forces  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea  is  still  necessary.  A 
considerable  proportion  of  those  forces  must 
remain  in  Europe  during  the  period  of  oc- 
cupation, and  those  which  are  brought  home 
will  be  transported  and  demobilized  at  heavy 
expense  for  months  to  come.  The  interest 
on  our  war  debt  must  of  course  be  paid  and 
provision  made  for  the  retirement  of  the  obli- 
gations of  the  Government  which  represent  it. 
But  these  demands  will  of  course  fall  much 
below  what  a  continuation  of  military  opera- 
tions would  have  entailed,  and  six  billions 
should  suffice  to  supply  a  sound  foundation 
for  the  financial  operations  of  the  year. 

FINANCING  OF  DEBT 

I  entirely  concur  with  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury    in    recommending    that    the    two 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      129 

billions  needed  in  addition  to  the  four  bil- 
lions provided  by  existing  law  be  obtained  from 
the  profits  which  have  accrued  and  shall 
accrue  from  war  contracts  and  distinctively 
war  business,  but  that  these  taxes  be  con- 
fined to  the  war  profits  accruing  in  191 8,  or 
in  1 91 9  from  business  originating  in  war 
contracts.  I  urge  your  acceptance  of  his 
recommendation  that  provision  be  made  now, 
not  subsequently,  that  the  taxes  to  be  paid  in 
1920  should  be  reduced  from  six  to  four  bil- 
lions. Any  arrangements  less  definite  than 
these  would  add  elements  of  doubt  and  con- 
fusion to  the  critical  period  of  industrial 
readjustment  through  which  the  country 
must  now  immediately  pass,  and  which  no 
true  friend  of  the  nation's  essential  business 
interests  can  afford  to  be  responsible  for  creat- 
ing or  prolonging.  Clearly  determined  con- 
ditions, clearly  and  simply  charted,  are  in- 
dispensable to  the  economic  revival  and  rapid 
industrial  development  which  may  confi- 
dently be  expected  if  we  act  now  and  sweep 
all  interrogation  points  away. 

I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Congress  will 
carry  out  the  naval  program  which  w^as 
undertaken  before  we  entered  the  war.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  has  submitted  to  your 
committees  for  authorization  that  part  of  the 
programme  which  covers  the  building  plans 
of  the  next  three  years.     These  plans  have 


I30  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

been  prepared  along  the  lines  and  in  accordance 
with  the  policy  which  the  Congress  established, 
not  under  the  exceptional  conditions  of  the 
war,  but  with  the  intention  of  adhering  to 
a  definite  method  of  development  for  the  navy. 
I  earnestly  recommend  the  uninterrupted  pur- 
suit of  that  policy.  It  would  clearly  be  unwise 
for  us  to  attempt  to  adjust  our  programs  to 
a  future  world  policy  as  yet  undetermined. 

PROBLEM  OF  RAILROADS 

The  question  which  causes  me  the  greatest 
concern  is  the  question  of  the  policy  to  be 
adopted  toward  the  railroads.  I  frankly  turn 
to  you  for  counsel  upon  it.  I  have  no  confident 
judgment  of  my  own.  I  do  not  see  how  any 
thoughtful  man  can  have  who  knows  anything 
of  the  complexity  of  the  problem.  It  is  a 
problem  which  must  be  studied,  studied  im- 
mediately and  studied  without  bias  or  preju- 
dice. Nothing  can  be  gained  by  becoming 
partisans  of  any  particular  plan  of  settlement. 

It  was  necessary  that  the  Administration 
of  the  railways  should  be  taken  over  by  the 
Government  so  long  as  the  war  lasted.  It 
woiild  have  been  impossible  otherwise  to 
establish  and  carry  through  under  a  single 
direction  the  necessary  priorities  of  shipment. 
It  would  have  been  impossible  otherwise  to 
combine  maximum  production  at  the  factories 
and   mines   and   farms    with   the   maximum 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT       131 

possible  car-supply  to  take  the  products  to 
the  ports  and  markets;  impossible  to  route 
troop  shipments  and  freight  shipments  with- 
out regard  to  the  advantage  or  disadvantage 
of  the  roads  employed;  impossible  to  subor- 
dinate, when  necessary,  all  questions  of  con- 
venience to  the  public  necessity;  impossible 
to  give  the  necessary  financial  support  to  the 
roads  from  the  public  treasury.  But  all 
these  necessities  have  now  been  served,  and 
the  question  is,  what  is  best  for  the  railroads 
and  for  the  public  in  the  future? 

Exceptional  circumstances  and  exceptional 
methods  of  administration  were  not  needed 
to  convince  us  that  the  railroads  were  not 
equal  to  the  immense  tasks  of  transportation 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  rapid  and  continu- 
ous development  of  the  industries  of  the  coun- 
try. We  knew  that  already.  And  we  know 
that  they  were  unequal  to  it  partly  because 
their  full  co-operation  was  rendered  impossible 
by  law  and  their  competition  made  obliga- 
tory, so  that  it  has  been  impossible  to  assign 
to  them  severally  the  traffic  which  could  best 
be  carried  by  their  respective  lines  in  the  in- 
terest of  expedition  and  national  economy. 

SEEKS  AID  OF  CONGRESS 

We  may  hope,  I  believe,  for  the  formal 
conclusion  of  the  war  by  treaty  by  the  time 
spring  has  come. 


132  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

The  twenty-one  months  to  which  the  present 
control  of  the  railways  is  limited  after  formal 
proclamation  of  peace  shall  have  been  made 
will  run  at  the  farthest,  I  take  it  for  granted, 
only  to  the  January  of  192 1.  The  full  equip- 
ment of  the  railways  which  the  Federal  ad- 
ministration had  planned  could  not  be  com- 
pleted within  any  such  period.  The  present 
law  does  not  permit  the  use  of  the  revenues  of 
the  several  roads  for  the  execution  of  such 
plans  except  by  formal  contract  with  their 
directors,  some  of  whom  will  consent  while 
some  will  not,  and  therefore  does  not  afford 
sufficient  authority  to  undertake  improve- 
ments upon  the  scale  upon  which  it  would  be 
necessary  to  undertake  them.  Every  ap- 
proach to  this  difficult  subject  -  matter  of 
decision  brings  us  face  to  face,  therefore, 
with  this  unanswered  question:  What  is  it 
right  that  we  should  do  with  the  railroads,  in 
the  interest  of  the  public  and  in  fairness  to 
their  owners?  Let  me  say  at  once  that  I 
have  no  answer  ready.  The  only  thing  that 
is  perfectly  clear  to  me  is  that  it  is  not  fair 
either  to  the  public  or  to  the  owners  of  the 
railroads  to  leave  the  question  unanswered 
and  that  it  will  presently  become  my  duty  to 
relinquish  control  of  the  roads,  even  before 
the  expiration  of  the  statutory  period,  unless 
there  should  appear  some  clear  prospect  in 
the  mean  time  of  a  legislative  solution.    Their 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      133 

release  would  at  least  produce  one  element  of 
a  solution,  namely,  certainty  and  a  quick 
stimulation  of  private  initiative. 

I  believe  that  it  will  be  serviceable  for  me 
to  set  forth  as  explicitly  as  possible  the  alter- 
native courses  that  lie  open  to  our  choice. 
We  can  simply  release  the  roads  and  go  back 
to  the  old  conditions  of  private  management, 
unrestricted  competition,  and  multiform  regu- 
lation by  both  State  and  Federal  authorities; 
or  we  can  go  to  the  opposite  extreme  and 
establish  complete  Government  control,  ac- 
companied, if  necessary,  by  actual  Govern- 
ment ownership,  or  we  can  adopt  an  inter- 
mediate course  of  modified  private  control, 
under  a  more  unified  and  affirmative  public 
regulation  and  under  such  alterations  of  the 
law  as  will  permit  wasteful  competition  to  be 
avoided  and  a  considerable  degree  of  unifi- 
cation of  administration  to  be  effected,  as, 
for  example,  by  regional  corporations  imder 
which  the  railways  of  definable  areas  would 
be  in  effect  combined  in  single  systems. 

CHANGE    IN    RAILROAD    NEEDS 

The  one  conclusion  that  I  am  ready  to 
state  with  confidence  is  that  it  would  be  a 
disservice  alike  to  the  country  and  to  the 
owners  of  the  railroads  to  return  to  the  old 
conditions  unmodified.  Those  are  conditions 
of  restraint  without  development.     There  is 


134  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

nothing  affirmative  or  helpful  about  them. 
What  the  country  chiefly  needs  is  that  all 
its  means  of  transportation  should  be  de- 
veloped, its  railways,  its  waterways,  its  high- 
ways, and  its  countryside  roads.  Some  new 
element  of  policy,  therefore,  is  absolutely 
necessary — necessary  for  the  service  of  the 
public,  necessary  for  the  release  of  credit  to 
those  who  are  administering  the  railways, 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  their  security- 
holders. The  old  policy  may  be  changed 
much  or  little,  but  surely  it  cannot  wisely  be 
left  as  it  was.  I  hope  that  the  Congress  will 
have  a  complete  and  impartial  study  of  the 
whole  problem  instituted  at  once  and  prose- 
cuted as  rapidly  as  possible.  I  stand  ready 
and  anxious  to  release  the  roads  from  the 
present  control,  and  I  must  do  so  at  a  very 
early  date  if  by  waiting  until  the  statutory 
limit  of  time  is  reached  I  shall  be  merely  pro- 
longing the  period  of  doubt  and  uncertainty 
which  is  hurtful  to  every  interest  concerned. 
I  welcome  this  occasion  to  announce  to  the 
Congress  my  purpose  to  join  in  Paris  the 
representatives  of  the  Governments  with 
which  we  have  been  associated  in  the  war 
against  the  Central  Empires  for  the  purpose 
of  discussing  with  them  the  main  features  of 
the  treaty  of  peace.  I  realize  the  great  in- 
conveniences that  will  attend  my  leaving  the 
country,  particularly  at   this  time,   but  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      135 

conclusion  that  it  was  my  paramount  duty 
to  go  has  been  forced  upon  me  by  considera- 
tions which  I  hope  will  seem  as  conclusive  to 
you  as  they  have  seemed  to  me. 

PROMISES  TO  KEEP  IN  TOUCH 

The  Allied  Governments  have  accepted  the 
bases  of  peace  which  I  outlined  to  the  Congress 
on  the  8th  of  January  last,  as  the  Central 
Empires  also  have,  and  very  reasonably  desire 
my  personal  counsel  in  their  interpretation  and 
application,  and  it  is  highly  desirable  that  I 
should  give  it  in  order  that  the  sincere  desire 
of  our  Government  to  contribute  without 
selfish  purpose  of  any  kind  to  settlements 
that  will  be  of  common  benefit  to  all  the 
nations  concerned  may  be  made  fully  manifest. 
The  peace  settlements  which  are  now  to  be 
agreed  upon  are  of  transcendent  importance 
both  to  us  and  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
I  know  of  no  business  or  interest  which  should 
take  precedence  of  them.  The  gallant  men 
of  our  armed  forces  on  land  and  sea  have 
consciously  fought  for  the  ideals  which  they 
knew  to  be  the  ideals  of  their  country;  I 
have  sought  to  express  those  ideals;  they 
have  accepted  my  statements  of  them  as  the 
substance  of  their  own  thought  and  purpose, 
as  the  associated  Governments  have  accepted 
them;  I  owe  it  to  them  to  see  to  it,  so  far  as  in 
me  Hes,  that  no  false  or  mistaken  interpreta- 

10 


136  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

tion  is  put  upon  them,  and  no  possible  effort 
omitted  to  realize  them.  It  is  now  my  duty 
to  play  my  full  part  in  making  good  what  they 
offered  their  life's  blood  to  obtain.  I  can  think 
of  no  call  to  service  which  could  transcend  this. 

EXPLAINS     CABLE    SEIZURE 

I  shall  be  in  close  touch  with  you  and 
with  affairs  on  this  side  of  the  water,  and  you 
will  know  all  that  I  do.  At  my  request  the 
French  and  English  Governments  have  abso- 
lutely removed  the  censorship  of  cable  news 
vvhich  until  v/ithin  a  fortnight  they  had  main- 
tained, and  there  is  now  no  censorship  what- 
ever exercised  at  this  end  except  upon  at- 
tempted trade  communications  with  enemy 
countries.  It  has  been  necessary  to  keep 
an  open  wire  constantly  available  between 
Paris  and  the  Department  of  State  and 
another  between  France  and  the  Department 
of  War.  In  order  that  this  might  be  done  with 
the  least  possible  interference  with  the  other 
uses  of  the  cables,  I  have  temporarily  taken 
over  the  control  of  both  cables  in  order  that 
they  may  be  used  as  a  single  system.  I  did 
so  at  the  advice  of  the  most  experienced 
cable  officials,  and  I  hope  that  the  results 
will  justify  my  hope  that  the  news  of  the  next 
few  months  may  pass  with  the  utmost  free- 
dom and  with  the  least  possible  delay  from 
each  side  of  the  sea  to  the  other. 


PROBLEMS  OF  READJUSTMENT      137 

CALLS  FOR  UNITED  SUPPORT 

May  I  not  hope,  gentlemen  of  the  Congress, 
that  in  the  delicate  tasks  I  shall  have  to  per- 
form on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  in  my  efforts 
truly  and  faithfully  to  interpret  the  principles 
and  purposes  of  the  country  we  love,  I  may 
have  the  encouragement  and  the  added 
strength  of  your  united  support?  I  realize 
the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  the  duty  I 
am  imdertaking.  I  am  poignantly  aware  of 
its  grave  responsibilities.  I  am  the  servant 
of  the  nation.  I  can  have  no  private  thought 
or  purpose  of  my  own  in  performing  such  an 
errand.  I  go  to  give  the  best  that  is  in  me 
to  the  common  settlements  which  I  must 
now  assist  in  arriving  at  in  conference  with  the 
other  working  heads  of  the  associated  Govern- 
ments. I  shall  count  upon  your  friendly 
countenance  and  encouragement.  I  shall  not 
be  inaccessible.  The  cables  and  the  wireless 
will  render  me  available  for  any  counsel  or 
service  you  may  desire  of  me,  and  I  shall  be 
happy  in  the  thought  that  I  am  constantly 
in  touch  with  the  weighty  matters  of  domestic 
policy  with  which  we  shall  have  to  deal.  I 
shall  make  my  absence  as  brief  as  possible  and 
shall  hope  to  return  with  the  happy  assurance 
that  it  has  been  possible  to  translate  into 
action  the  great  ideals  for  which  America  has 
striven. 


APPENDIX 

REVISED  TEXT  OF  THE  ARMISTICE 

In  the  course  of  his  address  to  the  Congress  on 
November  ii,  1918}  President  Wilson  read  the  orig- 
inal text  of  the  armistice  agreement,  which  had  been 
sent  by  cable  to  the  United  States  Government  before 
that  agreement  had  been  signed  at  Marshal  Foch's 
headquarters  by  Germany's  delegated  representatives. 
Before  its  conditions  were  accepted  and  the  document 
was  signed,  several  important  changes  were  made 
from  the  original  text.  The  complete  revised  text 
of  the  armistice,  as  signed  on  November  11,  1918, 
follows,  the  altered  clauses  being  printed  in  italic 
type: 

I — Military  Clauses  on  Western  Front 

One — Cessation  of  operations  by  land  and  in  the 
air  six  hours  after  the  signature  of  the  armistice. 

Two — Immediate  evacuation  of  invaded  coun- 
tries: Belgiimi,  France,  Alsace-Lorraine,  Luxem- 
burg, so  ordered  as  to  be  completed  within  fourteen 
days  from  the  signature  of  the  armistice.  German 
troops  which  have  not  left  the  above-mentioned 
territories  within  the  period  fixed  will  become 
prisoners  of  war.  Occupation  by  the  Allied  and 
iSee  page  95. 


I40  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

United  States  forces  jointly  will  keep  pace  with 
evacuation  in  these  areas.  All  movements  of  evacu- 
ation and  occupation  will  be  regulated  in  accord- 
ance with  a  note  annexed  to  the  stated  terms. 

Tkree^Repatriation  beginning  at  once  to  he  com- 
pleted within  fifteen  days  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
countries  above  enumerated  {including  hostages,  per- 
sons under  trial  or  convicted). 

Four — Surrender  in  good  condition  by  the  German 
Armies  of  the  following  war  material:  Five  thousand 
guns  {2,500  heavy,  and  2,500  field),  25,000  machine 
guns,  3,000  minenwerfer,  1,700  air-planes  {fighters, 
bombers — firstly,  all  of  the  D  fs  and  all  the  night 
bombing  machines).  The  above  to  be  delivered  in 
situ  to  the  Allied  and  United  States  troops  in  accord- 
ance with  the  detailed  conditions  laid  down  in  the 
note*  {annexure  No.  i)  drawn  up  at  the  moment  of 
the  signing  of  the  armistice. 

Five — Evacuation  by  the  German  armies  of  the 
countries  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  coun- 
tries on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  shall  be  adminis- 
tered by  the  local  troops  of  occupation.  The  occu- 
pation of  these  territories  will  be  carried  out  by 
Allied  and  United  States  garrisons  holding  the 
principal  crossings  of  the  Rhine  {Mayence,  Co- 
hlenz,  Cologne),  together  with  the  bridgeheads  at 
these  points  of  a  thirty-kilometer  radius  on  the  right 
hank  and  by  garrisons  similarly  holding  the  strategic 
points  of  the  regions.  A  neutral  zone  shall  he  reserved 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  between  the  stream  and  a 
line  drawn  parallel  to  the  bridgeheads  and  to  the  stream, 
and  at  a  distance  of  ten  kilometers  from  the  frontier 
of  Holland  up  to  the  frontier  of  Switzerland.  The 
evacuation  by  the  enemy  of  the  Rhine  lands  {left  and 


APPENDIX  141 

right  bank)  shall  be  so  ordered  as  to  be  completed 
within  a  Jtirther  period  of  sixteen  days,  in  all,  thirty - 
one  days  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice.  All  the 
movements  of  evacuation  or  occupation  are  regulated 
by  the  note  {annexure  No.  i)  drawn  up  at  the  moment 
of  the  signing  of  the  armistice. 

Six — In  all  territories  evacuated  by  the  enemy 
there  shall  be  no  evacuation  of  inhabitants;  no 
damage  or  harm  shall  be  done  to  the  persons  or 
property  of  the  inhabitants.  No  person  shall  be 
prosecuted  for  offenses  of  participation  in  war 
measures  prior  to  the  signing  of  the  armistice.  No 
destruction  of  any  kind  shall  be  committed.  Mili- 
tary establishments  of  all  kinds  shall  be  delivered 
intact,  as  well  as  military  stores  of  food,  munitions, 
and  equipment  not  removed  during  the  time  fixed 
for  evacuation.  Stores  of  food  of  all  kinds  for  the 
civil  population,  cattle,  etc.,  shall  be  left  in  situ. 
Industrial  establishments  shall  not  be  impaired  in 
any  way  and  their  personnel  shall  not  be  removed. 

Seven — Roads  and  means  of  communication  of 
every  kind,  railroads,  waterways,  main  roads, 
bridges,  telegraphs,  telephones,  shall  be  in  no 
manner  impaired.  All  civil  and  military  per- 
sonnel at  present  employed  on  them  shall  remain. 
Five  thousand  locomotives  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  wagons  in  good  working  order,  with  all 
necessary  spare  parts  and  fittings,  shall  be  delivered 
to  the  associated  Powers  within  the  period  fixed  in 
annexure  No.  2,  and  total  of  which  shall  not  exceed 
thirty-one  days.  There  shall  likewise  be  delivered 
five  thousand  motor  -  lorries  {camion  automobiles) 
in  good  order,  within  the  period  of  thirty-six  days. 
The  railways  of  Alsace-Lorraine  shall  be  handed  over 


142  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

within  the  period  of  thirty-one  days,  together  with 
pre-war  personnel  and  material.  Further,  the  ma- 
terial necessary  for  the  working  oj  railways  in  the 
countries  on  the  left  hank  of  the  Rhine  shall  he  left 
in  situ.  All  stores  of  coal  and  material  for  the  up- 
keep of  permanent  ways,  signals,  and  repair  shops 
shall  he  left  in  situ.  These  stores  shall  he  maintained 
hy  Germany  in  so  far  as  concerns  the  working  of  the 
railroads  in  the  countries  on  the  left  hank  of  the  RJiine. 
All  harges  taken  from  the  Allies  shall  he  restored  to 
them.  The  note  (annexure  No.  2)  regulates  the  de- 
tails of  these  measures. 

Eight — The  German  command  shall  he  respon- 
sihle  for  revealing  within  the  period  of  forty-eight 
hours  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice  all  mines  or 
delayed-action  fuses  on  territory  evacuated  hy  the 
German  troops  and  shall  assist  in  their  discovery 
and  destruction.  It  also  shall  reveal  all  destructive 
measures  that  may  have  heen  taken  {such  as  poisoning 
or  polluting  of  springs  and  wells,  etc.).  All  under 
penalty  of  reprisals. 

Nine — The  right  of  requisition  shall  he  exercised 
hy  the  Allied  and  United  States  armies  in  all  occupied 
territories,  suhject  to  regulation  of  accounts  with 
those  whom  it  may  concern.  The  upkeep  of  the  troops 
of  occupation  in  the  Rkineland  {excluding  Alsace- 
Lorraine)  shall  he  charged  to  the  German  Government. 

Ten — The  immediate  repatriation  without  reci- 
procity, according  to  detailed  conditions  which  shall 
he  fixed  of  all  Allied  and  United  States  prisoners  of 
war,  including  persons  under  trial  or  convicted.  The 
Allied  Powers  and  the  United  States  shall  he  able  to 
dispose  of  them  as  they  wish.  This  condition  annuls 
the  previous  conventions  on  the  suhject  of  the  ex- 


APPENDIX  143 

change  of  prisoners  of  war,  including  the  one  of  July, 
igi8,  in  course  of  ratification.  However,  the  re- 
patriation of  German  prisoners  of  war  interned  in 
Holland  and  in  Switzerland  shall  continue  as  before. 
The  repatriation  of  German  prisoners  of  war  shall  he 
regulated  at  the  conclusion  of  the  preliminaries  of 
peace. 

Eleven — Sick  and  wounded  who  cannot  be  re- 
moved from  evacuated  territory  will  be  cared  for 
by  German  personnel,  who  will  be  left  on  the  spot 
with  the  medical  material  required. 

II — Disposition  Relative  to  the  Eastern 
Frontiers  of  Germany 

Twelve — All  German  troops  at  present  in  the  ter- 
ritories which  before  belonged  to  Austria-Hungary, 
Rumania,  Turkey,  shall  withdraw  immediately 
within  the  frontiers  of  Germany  as  they  existed  on 
August  I,  1 91 4.  All  German  troops  at  present 
in  the  territories  which  before  the  war  belonged  to 
Russia  shall  likewise  withdraw  within  the  frontiers 
of  Germany,  defined  as  above,  as  soon  as  the  Allies, 
taking  into  account  the  internal  situation  of  these 
territories,  shall  decide  that  the  time  for  this  has  come. 

Thirteen — Evacuation  by  German  troops  to  be- 
gin at  once,  and  all  German  instructors,  prisoners, 
and  civilians  as  well  as  military  agents  now  on  the 
territory  of  Russia  (as  defined  before  1914)  to  be 
recalled. 

Fourteen — German  troops  to  cease  at  once  all 
requisitions  and  seizures  and  any  other  undertak- 
ing with  a  view  to  obtaining  supplies  intended  for 
Germany  in  Rimiania  and  Russia  (as  defined  on 
August  I,  1914). 


144  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

Fifteen — Renunciation  of  the  treaties  of  Bucha- 
rest and  Brest-Litovsk  and  of  the  supplementary 
treaties 

Sixteen — The  Allies  shall  have  free  access  to  the 
territories  evacuated  by  the  Germans  on  their  eastern 
frontier,  either  through  Danzig  or  by  the  Vistula, 
in  order  to  convey  supplies  to  the  populations  of  those 
territories  and  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  order. 

Ill — Clause  Concerning  East  Africa 

Seventeen — Evacuation  by  all  German  forces  op- 
erating in  East  Africa  within  a  period  to  be  fixed 
by  the  Allies. 

IV — General  Clauses 

Eighteen — Repatriation,  without  reciprocity,  within 
a  maximum  period  of  one  month  in  accordance  with 
detailed  conditions  hereafter  to  be  fixed  of  all  in- 
terned civilians,  including  hostages  and  persons  under 
trial  or  convicted,  belonging  to  the  Allied  or  associated 
Powers,  other  than  those  enumerated  in  Article  Three. 

Nineteen — The  following  financial  conditions  are 
reqviired:  Reparation  for  damage  done.  While 
such  armistice  lasts  no  public  securities  shall  be 
removed  by  the  enemy  which  can  serve  as  a  pledge 
to  the  Allies  for  the  recovery  or  reparation  for 
war  losses.  Immediate  restitution  of  the  cash  de- 
posit in  the  National  Bank  of  Belgitmi,  and  in  gen- 
eral immediate  return  of  all  documents,  specie, 
stocks,  shares,  paper  money,  together  with  plant 
for  the  issue  thereof,  touching  public  or  private 
interests  in  the  invaded  countries.  Restitution  of 
the  Russian  and  Rimianian  gold  yielded  to  Ger- 
many or  taken  by  that  power.     This  gold  to  be 


APPENDIX  145 

delivered  in  trust  to  the  Allies  until  the  signature 
of   peace. 

V — Naval  Conditions 

Twenty — Immediate  cessation  of  all  hostilities  at 
sea  and  definite  information  to  be  given  as  to  the 
location  and  movements  of  all  German  ships. 
Notification  to  be  given  to  neutrals  that  freedom 
of  navigation  in  all  territorial  waters  is  given  to 
the  naval  and  mercantile  marines  of  the  Allied  and 
associated  Powers,  all  questions  of  neutrality  being 
waived. 

Twenty-one — All  naval  and  mercantile  marine 
prisoners  of  the  Allied  and  associated  Powers  in 
German  hands  to  be  retiimed  without  reciprocity. 

Twenty-two — Surrender  to  the  Allies  and  United 
States  of  all  submarines  {including  submarine 
cruisers  and  all  mine-laying  submarines)  now 
existing,  with  their  complete  armament  and  equi  - 
ment,  in  ports  which  shall  be  specified  by  the  Allies 
and  the  United  States.  Those  which  cannot  take  the 
sea  shall  be  disarmed  of  the  personnel  and  ma^^rial 
and  shall  remain  under  the  supervision  of  the  Allies 
and  the  United  States.  The  submarines  whicn  are 
ready  for  the  sea  shall  be  prepared  to  leaie  the 
German  ports  as  soon  as  orders  shall  be  received  by 
wireless  for  their  voyage  to  the  port  designate!  for 
their  delivery,  and  the  remainder  at  the  earlies  pos- 
sible moment.  The  conditions  of  this  article  shall 
be  carried  into  effect  within  the  period  of  foi  rteen 
days  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice. 

Twenty-three — German  surface  war-ships  which 
shall  be  designated  by  the  Allies  and  the  United 
States    shall   be  immediately   disarmed   and   there- 


146  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

after  interned  in  neutral  ports  or  in  default  of  them 
in  Allied  ports  to  he  designated  by  the  Allies  and  the 
United  States.  They  will  there  remain  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Allies  and  of  the  United  States, 
only  caretakers  being  left  on  board.  The  following 
war-ships  are  designated  by  the  Allies:  Six  battle 
cruisers,  ten  battle-ships,  eight  light  cruisers  {in- 
cluding two  mine-layers),  fifty  destroyers  of  the  most 
modern  types.  All  other  surface  war-ships  {in- 
cluding river  craft)  are  to  be  concentrated  in  German 
naval  bases  to  be  designated  by  the  Allies  and  the 
United  States  and  are  to  be  completely  disarmed  and 
classed  under  the  supervision  of  the  Allies  an^  the 
United  States.  The  military  armament  of  all  ships 
of  the  auxiliary  fleet  shall  be  put  on  shore.  All  ves- 
r-els  designated  to  be  interned  shall  be  ready  to  leave 
the  German  ports  seven  days  after  the  signing  of  the 
a:  mistice.  Directions  for  the  voyage  will  be  given  by 
vjtreless. 

Twenty-four — The  Allies  and  the  United  States 
of  America  shall  have  the  right  to  sweep  up  all 
mhie-fields  and  obstructions  laid  by  Germany 
outsivle  German  territorial  waters,  and  the  posi- 
tions of  these  are  to  be  indicated. 

T\ienty-five — Freedom  of  access  to  and  from  the 
Baltc  to  be  given  to  the  naval  and  mercantile 
mari'.ies  of  the  Allied  and  associated  Powers.  To 
secuj  t  this  the  Allies  and  the  United  States  of 
Ame  xca  shall  be  empowered  to  occupy  all  Ger- 
man forts,  fortifications,  batteries,  and  defense 
works  of  all  kinds  in  all  the  entrances  from,  the 
Catte^at  into  the  Baltic,  and  to  sweep  up  all 
mines  ,-.nd  obstructions  within  and  without  Ger- 
man territorial  waters,  without  any  question  of 


APPENDIX  147 

neutrality  being  raised,   and  the  positions  of  all 
such  mines  and  obstructions  are  to  be  indicated. 

Twenty-six — The  existing  blockade  conditions  set 
up  by  the  Allied  and  associated  Powers  are  to  re- 
main unchanged,  and  all  German  merchant-ships 
found  at  sea  are  to  remain  liable  to  capture.  The 
Allies  and  the  United  States  should  give  consid- 
eration to  the  provisioning  of  Germany  during  the 
armistice  to  the  extent  recognized  as  necessary. 

Twenty-seven — All  naval  aircraft  are  to  be 
concentrated  and  immobilized  in  German  bases 
to  be  specified  by  the  Allies  and  the  United  States 
of  America. 

Twenty-eight — In  evacuating  the  Belgian  coast  and 
ports  Germany  shall  abandon  in  situ  and  in  fact 
all  port  and  river  navigation  material,  all  merchant- 
ships,  tugs,  lighters,  all  naval  aeronautic  apparatus, 
material,  and  supplies,  and  all  arms,  apparatus, 
and  supplies  of  every  kind. 

Twenty-nine — All  Black  Sea  ports  are  to  be 
evacuated  by  Germany;  all  Russian  war- vessels ^ 
of  all  descriptions  seized  by  Germany  in  the 
Black  Sea  are  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Allies  and 
the  United  States  of  America;  all  neutral  mer- 
chant-vessels seized  are  to  be  released;  all  war- 
like and  other  materials  of  all  kinds  seized  in 
those  ports  are  to  be  returned  and  German  ma- 
terials as  specified  in  Clause  Twenty-eight  are  to 
be  abandoned. 

Thirty— All  merchant-vessels  in  German  hands 
belonging  to  the  AlHed  and  associated  Powers  are 
to  be  restored  in  ports  to  be  specified  by  the  Al- 
lies and  the  United  States  of  America  without 
reciprocity. 


148  GUARANTEES  OF  PEACE 

Thirty-one — No  destruction  of  ships  or  of  ma- 
terials to  be  permitted  before  evacuation,  surren- 
der, or  restoration. 

Thirty-two — The  German  Government  will  noti- 
fy the  neutral  Governments  of  the  w^orld,  and 
particularly  the  Governments  of  Nor^^ay,  Sweden, 
Denmark,  and  Holland,  that  all  restrictions 
placed  on  the  trading  of  their  vessels  with  the 
Allied  and  associated  countries,  whether  by  the 
German  Government  or  by  private  German  in- 
terests, and  whether  in  return  for  specific  con- 
cessions, such  as  the  export  of  shipbuilding  ma- 
terials, or  not,  are  immediately  canceled. 

Thirty-three  —  No  transfers  of  German  mer- 
chant shipping  of  any  description  to  any  neu- 
tral flag  are  to  take  place  after  signature  of  the 
armistice. 

VI — Duration  of  Armistice 

Thirty-four — The  duration  of  the  armistice  is 
to  he  thirty  days,  with  option  to  extend.  During 
this  period  if  its  clauses  are  not  carried  into  exe- 
cution the  armistice  may  he  denounced  hy  one  of  the 
contracting  parties,  which  must  give  warning  forty- 
eight  hours  in  advance.  It  is  understood  that  the 
execution  of  Articles  j  and  i8  shall  not  warrant  the 
denunciation  of  the  armistice  on  the  ground  of  in- 
sufficient execution  within  a  period  fixed,  except  in 
the  case  of  had  faith  in  carrying  them  into  execution. 
In  order  to  assure  the  execution  of  this  convention 
under  the  hest  conditions,  the  principle  of  a  perma- 
nent intermational  armistice  commission  is  admitted. 
This  commission  will  act  under  the  authority  of  the 
Allied  military  and  naval  Commanders  in  Chief. 


APPENDIX  149 

VII — The  Limit  for  Reply 

Thirty-five — This  armistice  to  be  accepted  or 
refused  by  Germany  within  seventy-two  hours  of 
notification. 


This  armistice  has  been  signed  the  Eleventh  of 
November,  Nineteen  Eighteen,  at  5  o'clock  French 
tivm. 

F.  FocH. 

R.  E.  Wemyss. 

Erzberger. 

A.  Oberndorff. 

WiNTERFELDT. 

Von  Sadow. 


THE  END 


DUE  DATE 

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